Remarks on Dwarfing Fruit Trees. 397 



ripening of the wood, which latter point might, in all proba- 

 bility, be urged as the proper groundwork of the whole 

 affair. If any one doubt t]|e importance of this principle, 

 let him cast his eyes on the thorn family, and behold the 

 vast difference in character between the pampered thorn-tree 

 in some trenched plantation, and the short-jointed, stubby- 

 looking tree on some elevated clayey knoll. Now I con- 

 tend, the habits and mode of bearing of the thorn being as 

 near as may be analogous to the bulk of our cultivated 

 fruits, that the first described thorn is a fair counterpart of at 

 least eighty per cent, of our kitchen garden fruit trees in 

 Britain, whilst the other case wil^l equally prove an illustra- 

 tion of what a dwarfing system can accomplish. Every 

 body knows the immense, fertility of the thorn situated on a 

 knoll of poor soil, and equally so the comparative barrenness 

 and profusion of young shoots which attend the other case. 

 To be sure, high culture here is admirably adapted to pro- 

 duce a good hedge. We need scarcely urge, however, that 

 the two objects in view are as opposite as the poles ; for 

 what is so great a nuisance in a compact and neat little 

 fruit garden as coarse growing fruit trees continually over- 

 powering their more moderate neighbors, and threatening to 

 monopolize the limited plot of ground to themselves ? The 

 proprietor is continually tempted, maugre the fine high 

 sounding titles on the neat labels, to cut them down, but 

 the old idea of " try them another year" comes many a time 

 to their rescue ; and thus they continue a pest, the poor un- 

 fortunate proprietor continuing, with much assiduity, to 

 prune away annually a profusion of coarse shoots, all pro- 

 duced to no other purpose than to exhaust soil, which might 

 have been much better employed. 



It may hereby fairly be inquired, what is a shallow soil, 

 or rather, what that precise depth, if there be one, which 

 suits the majority of our fruit trees? To answer this by 

 offering a specific depth would indeed be an arbitrary mode 

 of settling such matters. Soils, subsoils, and sites, differ so 

 much as to render this unnecessary. Moreover, like the 

 celebrated drainage question amongst our agricultural neigh- 



