The Canadian Horticulturist. 273 



EXPEDIENTS FOR PROMOTING FRUITFULNESS IN PLANTS. 



A 



LL expedients for inducing early fruiting are founded upon the well- 

 known law that excessive growth and great prolificness can not 

 simultaneously exist in the same plant. Some of the most familiar 

 modes of inducing fruit are as under : — 



BY DWARFING. 



In horticultural parlance, trees are said to be dwarfed when 

 grafted or budded on stocks of weaker growth than themselves. Thus we have 

 the pear on the quince, the cherry on the mahaleb, the apple on the Paradise 

 stock, the peach on the plum, etc. This is a popular and efficient mode of ren- 

 dering trees fruitful. Properly speaking, any low tree is dwarfed ; the term 

 when applied to a system is merely technical. 



RV BENDING THE BRANCHES. 



This process practically consists in allowing the branches of a young tree to 

 grow undisturbed by the pruning knife for several years until the plant attains 

 considerable size ; the young shoots are then bent down and secured to pegs 

 fastened in the ground. This mode is eminently adapted for standard pear 

 trees, especially such varieties as Dix, Bartlett, Sheldon and others that make 

 long yearly shoots. These when bent down soon become studded thickly with 

 blossom spurs, and very ornamental and symmetrical trees can be formed by a 

 little attention to the bending and regulating the shoots ; the pendent form soon 

 becomes fixed, and trees so treated are certain to be productive. The proper 

 season to commence tying down is the month of August ; the young wood will 

 then be sufficiently matured to bend, and many of the most forward buds will 

 form short fruit spurs, and bloom the following spring. Trees and plants of all 

 kinds can be incited to flower and fruit, no matter how luxuriant their growth, 

 by careful observance of the bending process. Horizontal training is a modifi- 

 cation of this system, and is a well-know^n method of encouraging fruitfulness. 



BY PRUNING THE ROOTS. 



When a tree has reached a fruit-bearing size, and shows no symptoms of a 

 fruit-bearing disposition, but instead throws out vigorous branches, root-pruning 

 is a very efficacious mode of checking growth. In highly cultivated gardens 

 where trees are planted and the roots have access to the rich soil, an immense 

 crop of branches will be produced, but little if any fruit. Root-pruning will 

 check such growths most effectually and render the trees fruitful. The opera- 

 tion is performed by digging out a circular trench at a distance of from three to 

 six feet from the stem, according to the size of the tree, and cutting all the roots 

 that are encountered or can be reached. The soil is again thrown back and the 



