nae ra ”\, canes 
1843.] 
THE GARDENERS CHRONICLE. 
891 
Just published, in One Volume 8yo., price 38. 6d., to Fellows of 
the Society, and 5s. to others, (or postage free, upon receipt of 
a Post-office order, price 5s. to Fellows of the Society, or 6s. 6d. 
to others,) 
CATALOGUE or rus FRUITS CULTIVATED 
in the GARDEN of the HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY or 
(Third Edition.) Containing the Names, Synonyms, 
Colour, Size, Form, Quality, Use, Time of Ripening, and many 
other particulars concern: the most important varieties of 
hardy Fruit cultivated in country. 
Sold at the House of the Society, 21, Regent-street, and also 
by Lonoman and Cv., Paternoster-row; J. HarcHarp, Picca- 
dilly; Ripeway, Piccadilly; Rivinctons, Waterloo-place ; and 
by the principal Booksellers in all parts of the Empire. 
‘ew Copies of the Second Edition of this Catalogue may be 
had at the reduced price of 1s. 6d. each. 
Che Gardeners’ Chronicle, 
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 238, 1848. 
OWING WEEKS. 
ali. 4. 8 Pat 
MEETING FOR THE TWO F 
Fripay, Jan. 5 « . . Bot 
We are to blame for not taking an earlier oppor- 
tunity of resuming the question of Timber-pruning ; 
and if some of our recent correspondents have regarded 
our silence as an acquiescence in the sentiments of 
others, we cannot say that we have just cause for com- 
plaint. We should have taken our side sooner. 
Not, indeed, that we have not done so formerly ; 
but it is long ago, and many have probably forgotten 
by this time what the views jare that we actually 
entertain upon the subject. Prune NoT AT ALL 
having been taken as our motto—if we were to assume 
a sylvan coat of arms—all the reasoning that was con- 
nected with those words has been forgotten, and the 
qualifying terms, 1f YOU_CAN HELP IT, have been 
entirely left out of view. Nevertheless, if those who 
interest themselves in such considerations will do us 
the favour to turn to our previous articles, and espe- 
cially to pages 364 and 523 of our volume for 1842, 
they will find that what is now sometimes called “ the 
prune-not-at-all system” is not ours, and that there is 
very little difference between us and some of those 
who are now with justice regarded as great practical 
authorities in Foresting. Mr. Billington, indeed, in 
one place, claimed our views as his own; but, as we 
then stated, they belong to neither him nor us, but 
are coeval with the appearance of sound Vegetable 
Physiology. 
The methods employed by Dr. Thackeray and Mr. 
Gavin Cree in the management of woods, being those 
which have been most prominently introduced into 
cur pages lately, we will now proceed to examine 
them, and see how far our views are in opposition to 
those experienced planters. 
Dr. Thackeray's system is explained at pages 644 
and 677 of this volume. From the statements there 
made we collect the following that are its principal 
features. Instead of attempting to cure injurious 
growth by the axe and saw, he takes means to prevent 
its occurrence. Instead of sending a crowd of ignorant 
labourers among his woods at some particular season, 
he provides a sensible tractable woodman, teaches 
him his lesson, and keeps him constantly employed all 
the year round. This woodman has a pruning-knife 
and chisel for his only tools. Large pranches are not 
permitted to grow for years, only to be lopped eventu- 
ally for the fire-heap or the charcoal-burner, and to 
ruin timber by the huge scars they leave. But 
a diligent plan of stopping and preventing is in 
action every day all the year round. Finally, the 
woods are “ wnmercifully thinned, and health, light, and 
air, pervade them.” By this method 500 acres of 
barren mountainous land in Flintshire are covered 
with trees whose vigour is attested by their growth. 
In 26 years Oaks, Larch, and Ash are to be found 20 
feet high. The cost of this operation is not stated ; 
but supposing that the Welsh woodman is paid 501. 
a year, we have this result attained at the cost of 
2s. per annum for each acre: we leave our readers to 
calculate how far this outlay can be paid by the thin- 
nings of the plantations. 
Now it is impossible for any man who understands 
foresting to doubt that a system like this is precisel 
what should be adopted in all cases whatsoever. cf 
is this beginning at the beginning in the right way, 
and an incessant perseverance in doing so, that 
has produced the results which those who have seen 
Dr. Thackeray’s woods have so much admired. But 
let us ask in what particular this Flintshire forest- 
ing differs from what we have, in ignorance of the 
existence of the plantations at Nerquis, constantly 
advocated ? t 
« Prune not at all should be the maxim of a forester. 
Plant thinly, chin constantly, stop carefully, and leave 
the rest to Nature.” ‘These words are to be found at 
p- 363, and seem to us to state briefly the whole 
system observed at Nerquis, with an exception, to 
which we shall presently return. But there are 
some minor points connected with Dr. Thackeray’s 
management, as we learn from the account given 
by Mr. Humphreys at p. 644. Acorns are dibbled 
where they are to remain; the advantage of this is 
most particularly insisted upon at p. 528 of our 
volume for 1842, in the case of both rks and Spanish 
Chesnuts. All wounds by the pruning-knife are 
made close to the main stem, and when the branches 
are young; this is insisted upon at p. 115 of 1841, and 
the reasons for it are there shown to be, that, if young 
shoots are not removed close to the stem, the remain- 
ing part dies, and the lips of the wound will not heal 
till the snag has fallen off, &c. &c. 
We have alluded to one point in which we do not 
appear to agree with Dr. Thackeray. He is repre- 
sented to be continually trimming his trees up by 
removing the side branches. We, on the contrary, 
have advised that the side branches should be may 
stopped, and the rest be left to Nature. Who is right? 
We refer to the magniticent timber of Nature—Dr. 
T. to his own trees. The question is one which can 
hardly be answered conclusively in the absence of 
experiments carefully instituted for the express pur- 
pose of deciding the point. Possibly Dr. Thackeray 
may have made such experiments ; in which case, 
we trust, if this should meet his eye, that he will 
favour us with them. Our opinion has been founded, 
in part, upon the well-known method observed in the 
nurseries, of forming standard fruit-trees. When this 
is to be done a single vigorous shoot is selected for 
the stem of the tree, and all the others are removed. 
The stem that is left grows rapidly, and produces an 
abundance of laterals, a portion of which form the 
branches of the head, when the growth of the tree is 
completed at the end of the season. Now all the 
laterals are carefully preserved during the growing 
season, until a few weeks after midsummer, when 
they are stopped or shortened back a little way, 
so as to prevent their going on growing any longer. 
In the autumn, when the leaves have fallen, these 
laterals are cut off close to the stem, in order to 
make it look clean; and not till then. Experience 
shows that a stout standard stem cannot be ob- 
tained if the laterals are not allowed to grow. 
This proves that more timber is obtained in one year 
by leaving the lateral shoots on an upright vigorous 
stem than by cutting them off; and if such is the case 
during one year, we submit that the same thing will 
go on for any number of years. In other words, if 
the stem of a tree deprived of laterals produces in one 
year 10 cubic inches of wood, while the same stem, 
furnished with laterals, produces 12, it seems to follow 
that the time which will furnish 100 cubic inches by 
close pruning will furnish 120 by mere stopping. We 
admit, however, that this is a doubtful point, upon 
which evidence is wanted ; and the following observa- 
tions of a correspondent, “A.,” are well worth consider- 
ation in the absence of such evidence :— 
** Although I am strongly opposed to the removal 
of limbs or branches of trees of advanced growth, I 
am disposed to think that a needless prejudice exists 
against pruning or training of trees at an early age. 
conceive that the forest-tree, like other branches of the 
vegetable kingdom, is by nature given to man, with the 
view that he should by his skill and industry direct and 
modify its growth to suit the various purposes for which 
he may design it—whether asa stately ornament of the 
pleasure-ground with branches extended to the turf, or 
for the purpose of supplying the dock-yard with a trunk 
of great length and girth. We are doubtless indebted to 
nature, unassisted by artificial pruning, for many of the 
finest timber-trees that have been supplied to our navy— 
but these trees are pruned by nature, being produced in 
woods, so close, that for want of sufficient air the lower 
branches dieand gradually disappear. From this circum- 
stance the stems grow to a great height and produce 
good timber. Young as these branches may be when they 
die, they must necessarily remain some years in a decayed 
state before they fall off close to the bole; and during 
this time, as the trunk advances in thickness, so must they 
be inclosed in the living stem, and even form dead knots 
until the bark becomes united and a continuous layer of 
young wood is formed under it. Bat if by artificial means 
the young branches were cut off at once close to the stem, 
the bark would unite without delay, the wound would heal, 
and in a short time it would require close investigation to 
detect the trifling blemish that might remain. If we take 
a small fruit-tree we are enabled to produce, at our will, 
either a standard with an erect stem, or a wall-tree with 
pliant branches, capable of being trained as our fancy may 
direct. So, likewise, I am persuaded, may we with equal 
facility and advantage regulate the growth of young forest- 
trees. If left to nature, under favourable circumstances, 
many trees, I admit, might become valuable timber; but 
due attention to pruning at an early period, taking care to 
remove those shoots that are prejudicial, and to encourage 
those that are useful, will hasten the growth of the tree; 
and attention should be directed towards forming a per- 
manent head as early as possible, at (such height as may 
be most advantageous. In this way a beautiful set of 
tillars (?) may be reared, which, almost without exception, 
will in due time become fine timber trees. As to the ob- 
jection frequently raised against pruning—that by reducing 
the quantity of leaves on a young tree we deprive it, as 
it were, of its lungs, and thereby check its growth—expe- 
rience teaches that this is not true. The young plant is 
endowed with vigorous vital power, and the partial re- 
moval cf its branches tends to promote even more 
luxuriant growth, and the trifling deprivation it has sus- 
tained is quickly more than compensated by an increased 
- 
energy.” ; 
In concluding these remarks, we take the oppor- 
tunity of setting ourselves right with a correspondent» 
who reproaches us with putting our imprimatur to a 
letter signed “ Quercus” at p. 677. Our words “ We 
quite agree” applied merely to the assertion that “we 
cannot walk or ride in any direction without being 
annoyed at seeing crowded or mangled plantations”— 
a fact about which there surely cannot be two opinions. 
At the same time we are bound to add that there was 
no reason why we should have disagreed with the 
sentiments expressed in the remainder of the letter of 
« Quercus,” written at a time when the management 
of the Nerquis plantations had only been described b: 
Mr. Humphreys, and not in the later and much clearer 
statement of “ p. o. A.” 
On another occasion we shall examine the principles 
upon which Mr, Gavin Cree’s system of foresting is 
founded. 
On several occasions we have endeavoured to show 
that the principal, if not the only, cause of the disease 
in Grapes called ‘‘shanking” is to be traced (o the 
border in which the Vines are growing. A better 
proof of the correctness of this view than is afforded by 
the following letter could hardly be desired. It relates 
to a case where Vines, which, prior to the hard winter 
of 1837-8, had been quite healthy, began to produce 
shanked Grapes after that season. We conjectured 
that all the surface-roots had been killed, and that the 
others had found their way into a cold wet subsoil 
Our advice, therefore, was to take up the Vines care 
fully, drain the border, and replant them with the 
roots near the surface. The account which Mr. Wat- 
son here gives of the result of this experiment is 
highly interesting. 
“The Vines that were replanted here in 1841 have been 
a complete triumph—so evident is the necessity of placing 
the roots near the surface. The fruit produced by those 
Vines on the new border were quite clear froma any symp- 
toms of shanking ; the Hamburghs were of a jet black, 
with a blue violet bloom on them; the White Frontig- 
nans were of a fine amber colour; the White Sweetwater 
was also very fine—while those Vines in the old border, 
under precisely the same treatment, had, as usual, the 
bunches shanked, As we only renewed rather more than 
one half of the border, with an intention of renewing 
the other when the first was in full bearing ; the whole of 
the Vines were in the same house, and subject to the same 
treatment. The Grapes from the replanted Vines were 
perfect, no doubt from the roots being placed within the 
influence of solar heat, and in a border thoroughly drained. 
Grapes may shank from various causes, yet no doubt 
exists with me that the coldness of the soil is the great 
evil—as is proved in a Vinery in this neighbourhood, with 
a well-prepared border no more than 3 feet deep, when the 
whole of the Grapes shanked. The surface of the border 
was most injudiciously planted with Salvias, Fuchsias 
Verbenas, &c., and thus a complete shade was produced ; 
the soil was umable to absorb as much heat from 
the sun as it otherwise would have done; a great quantity 
of rain fell just at the time when the berries were changing 
colour, which would still further lower the amount of warmth 
in the soil; and thus the absorbent points of the roots were 
rendered inactive, and were in a much colder medium than 
the leaves and branches. What proves this to be true is, 
that no plants were ever on the border before, nor were the 
Grapes ever before this year shanked.”” 
We most particularly recommend these facts to the 
consideration of those who would refer “ shanking” to 
other causes than can be found in the border. 
EARLY RIPENING OF GRAPES ON OPEN 
WALLS. 
In this the northern part of Worcestershire, where the 
ripening of Agricultural and Horticultural produce is from 
a week to a fortnight later than in some of the warmer 
parts of the same country, Grapes are frequently de- 
stroyed by early autumnal frosts before they arrive at 
maturity. To remedy disappointment from such cause, 
some cultivators of the Vine, years ago, inclosed the 
bunches of fruit singly in glass-tubes ; others trained their 
Vines horizontally near the earth, and placed hand-glasses 
over them. Some persons have also entirely inclosed their 
Vines on the walls with glazed frames. Of these several 
practices we have had no experience; but, doubtless, each 
one will afford some advantage in respect to the more 
early maturation of the fruit. 
As I prefer the long-rod system of training, so ably 
advocated by Mr. Hoare, by which the crop of fruit is con- 
centrated into a comparatively small compass, it occurred 
to me that if the fruiting branches only were inclosed in 
small glazed frames, the fruit would have the assistance of 
stimulated foliage, whilst those parts of the tree which 
were being trained preparatory to their bearing next year’s 
crop would not be interfered with. Having a Vine five 
years old, which was prepared for bearing fruit the first 
time, and that on three short perpendicular branches I 
inclosed the centre one in a small glazed frame, only two 
feet nine inches long, by thirteen inches wide, with single 
panes of glass seven inches wide on each side, meeting ax 
acommon roof. The fruiting-bunches being developed, 
the laterals bearing them were shortened above the 
bunches, and the frame fixed over the whole branch, 
against the wall. This was done on the 22dof May. Of 
course the inequalities of a brick-wall did not admit of 
the frame fitting very closely to it; nor did I think it 
desirable that it should doso. I would here mention that 
I think it would have been advantageous to the experi. 
