32 DECORATIVE PLANTS, TREES AND SHRUBS 



demand than the pink and the white and so must be grown in 

 greater number. All of them are budded on the ordinary Quick 

 thorn. The stocks are planted in the autumn and the treatment 

 from start to finish is exactly that which is given to fruit stocks and 

 fruit trees. Budded low down in the stock in August, a strong 

 growth takes place the first year. Standard height is reached the 

 second year, then by a trimming away of side growths and the 

 stopping of the leader a head is formed, and a three-year-old tree 

 is usually better than most of the best three-year-old apples. We 

 have always found standard thorns peculiarly satisfactory to grow, 

 never had any unsolds left on hand, and always realized a fair price. 



HYGIENIC CONDITIONS 



Let it not be supposed that having said so much, or so little, we 

 have said all that is to be said. These trees need cultivating ; they 

 need to be kept clean and healthy, and it is not to be taken for granted 

 that they are not as subject to pests and diseases as other trees. The 

 cerasus, the crabs, the prunus and the thorns are often as badly hurt 

 by aphis, and the almonds by aphis and red spider, as any fruit tree 

 can be, and they must be just as carefully attended to and relieved. 

 We have seen American blight so bad on thorns that the trees have 

 had to be destroyed. And while it is important thus to look after 

 the top growth, healthy conditions for the roots must be assured, 

 and this is especially the case with the slower growing oak and beech. 

 If they are provided for at planting time, well and good, and if they 

 are not, then nothing we can do later can make up for it. The 

 nature of the soil, provided it be well worked and well drained, is 

 not a matter of very great concern, seeing that no one would be likely 

 to attempt nursery work on unsuitable land ; neither does the 

 question of feeding come in, for if the hoe is kept going throughout 

 the season the stirring of the soil will keep them going. The finest 

 specimen weeping ash we ever saw, covering at least a rood of ground, 

 aged, yet flourishing like a sapling, had its roots down into and 

 roamed at will in the passages and walls of a Roman villa ! 



