364 Retrospective Criticism, 



my care, that have yielded to my treatment, for half a lifetime, the best 

 crops of fruit I ever saw. Modes of vegetable culture are not a matter of 

 opinion like a political question ; success will at once remove doubt and 

 silence cavils* The best means, I believe, yet known to ripen the wood and 

 mature the blossom buds for the future crop, in a short season of low temper- 

 ature, is to repulse the growth of the shoot by cutting off" its top towards the 

 end of summer ; and, unhappily for the horticultural sagacity of Mr. Hous- 

 man, it is more applicable to the weak than the strong wood, because there 

 is no danger of the former producing a second growth. So sensible are the 

 French gardeners of the utility of this stopping, that they constantly practise 

 it on their apple and pear trees. Who but the greatest novice would cast 

 up longitudinal trenches on his peach borders, and expose the roots of his 

 trees to the frost of winter, and dam up the water ? I suppose we shall be 

 told in some future letter, that his border is provided with a pitchment like 

 that of Mr. Hiver, or that the wall is built on a mound, which passes off the 

 water right and left with the greatest facility. What will Mr. M'Murtrie, 

 who is perhaps the first of the first rank of pine-growers, think, when he 

 hears it dogmatically asserted that the pine-apples he now cultivates so 

 extensively are compared to a common codling apple, and a Swedish tur- 

 nip ? The truth is, Mr. M'Murtrie knows well, and so does every experi- 

 enced gardener, that all the kinds of pine-apples are good when well grown, 

 and bad only when badly managed ; and I think he will concur with me 

 in saying that Mr. Housman is a mere horticultural scribbler, but no gar- 

 dener. If I mistake not, he may be ranked amongst that respectable class 

 of human beings, who, if they were to live five hundred years, would never 

 be able to conceive a new thought, nor invent a mousetrap. There has 

 been lately so much said about the necessity of air to the roots of our fruit 

 trees, that it is not improbable before long we shall see them mounted upon 

 pillars, like the stacks of corn in a farmer's yard. Stirring the earth deeply 

 to admit the ingress of air has the advantage of creating a profusion of 

 suckers for budding and grafting ; the truth of this, even those whom Mr. 

 Housman calls " numskull " readers cannot have the audacity to deny. I 

 invite the criticisms of the experienced intelligent gardener to my paper, 

 but I will pay no future attention to any shallow or pretending critic, who 

 has nothing but conceit and impudence to support him. If we are to rely 

 implicitly on Nieol, Smith, &c, for what end was your Magazine intended ? 

 I am, &c. — H. S. Newington, April 14. 1830. 



Mr. Hiver 's Mode of training the Pear Tree. — Sir, Your correspondent 

 Mr. Bernard Saunders, who has commented on my letter on the culture of 

 the pear, must have read it with very little attention, otherwise he would 

 have known the age, and the manner in which my trees were trained. Mr. 

 Saunders has likewise totally misconstrued my meaning with reference to 

 the thorn, in supposing that I meant to recommend leaving these trees to 

 nature. I only wished to show the bad consequences resulting from the 

 severe cutting of the tree confined to a limited space and rich border. So 

 far is my practice from being hostile to handsome and well -formed trees, 

 that I think I could show him as fine a collection of my training, as he or 

 any other gardener ever saw, or could desire to see. It is surely as easy a 

 matter to train branches uniform and straight, studded from end to end with 

 blossom buds, as another naked as a sign post. But there may be many 

 ready to condemn my system, who never have equalled my success ; and no 

 gardener can write for every reader. There will always be localities and 

 various circumstances in which vegetable culture is placed, that rto form of 

 management, however general its application, would be found practicable. 

 As I consider my letter of much importance to gardeners, I am not sorry 

 to be thus induced to furnish such further particulars as have been con- 

 nected with the progress of my trees. The kinds cultivated were the Brown 

 Beurree, Crassane, Autumn Bergamot, St. Germain, Colmar, and ChaunlOri- 



