TO INDUCE FRUITFULNESS. 33 



conical form, full of fruit branches, and producing abundantly. 

 Those dwarf trees, thus annually root pruned, he supplies abun- 

 dantly with manure at the ends of the roots, thus keeping up 

 their health and vigour. The plan is an admirable one for 

 small gardens, or for amateurs who wish to grow a great many 

 sorts in a small surface. Mr. Rivers, in a pamphlet on this 

 subject, enumerates the following among the advantages of sys- 

 tematic root pruning. 



" 1. The facility of thinning, (owing to the small size of the 

 trees,) and, in some varieties, of setting the blossoms of shy- 

 bearing sorts, and of thinning and gathering the fruit. 



" 2. It will make the gardener independent of the natural soil 

 of his garden, as a few barrowsful of rich mould will support a 

 tree for a lengthened period, thus placing bad soils nearly on a 

 level with those the most favourable. 



" 3. The capability of removing trees of fifteen or twenty 

 years' growth, with as much facility as furniture. To tenants 

 this will indeed be a boon, for perhaps one of the greatest an- 

 noyances a tenant is subject to, is that of being obliged to leave 

 behind him trees that he has nurtured with the utmost care/' 



In conclusion, Mr. Rivers recommends caution ; " enough of 

 vigour must be left in the tree to support its crop of fruit, and 

 one, two, or three seasons' cessation from root pruning, will often 

 be found necessary." 



Root pruning in this country will, we think, be most valuable 

 in its application to common standard trees, which are thrifty, 

 but bear little or no fruit. They will generally be found to re- 

 quire but a single pruning to bring them into a permanently 

 fruitful condition ; and some sorts of Pears and Plums, which 

 do not usually give a fair crop till they are twelve or fourteen 

 years old, may be brought into fruit by this means as soon as 

 they are of proper size. Several nearly full grown peach, pear, 

 and plum trees, on a very rich soil on the Hudson, which were 

 over-luxuriant but bore no fruit, were root pruned by our advice 

 two years ago, and yielded most excellent and abundant crops 

 last season. 



In the case of Apple orchards, where the permanent value 

 depends on the size, longevity, and continued productiveness of 

 the trees, it is better to wait patiently and not resort to pruning 

 to bring them into bearing ; as it cannot be denied that all 

 excessive pruning shortens somewhat the life of a tree. Mr. 

 Coxe, indeed, recommended that the first fruit should never be 

 allowed to ripen on a young apple orchard, as it lessens very 

 materially the vigour of the trees. 



Shortening-in the shoots of Peaches, Nectarines, and Apricots, 

 as we shall hereafter point out, has a strong tendency to increase 

 the fruitfulness of these trees, since by reducing the young wood, 



the sap accumulates in the remainder of the branch, and many 



2* 



