694 Treatment of Fruit Trees. 



ringing manoeuvres of the day. With regard to the quince 

 stock for pears, I can hardly agree with Mr. Hiver in this 

 matter. He seems to make disease a necessary consequence 

 of poverty, which I have yet to learn. I know that many in- 

 jurious effects will follow from poverty in trees, but I am not 

 aware that disease will of necessity. I think with him, that 

 it is far better to manage them by the border ; but I know 

 also that some kinds will do well on quince stocks, and, I be- 

 lieve, last for many years : but these, in my opinion, should 

 have a little deeper and better soil than the free stocks, and 

 the strong-wooded and shy-fruiting kinds should alone have 

 the quince. By the way, are quince trees liable to premature 

 decay ? If not, why should the pears be so when worked on 

 them ? I know it is difficult to get them on this stock in the 

 nurseries, because they will not produce wood fast enough, 

 and strength of wood is to many the only criterion to judge 

 by. As for pruning, I am convinced it is ridiculous to depend 

 upon any system to produce fruitfulness in pear trees; and 

 should rather view it in the light of an operation forced upon 

 us by limitation, and the necessity of light and air to all parts 

 of the tree. As for young trees, a year or two after planting, 

 if too luxuriant, how easy and efficacious it is to take them 

 up and replant them ! But this, of course, as well as cutting 

 the roots, presupposes errors in the border formation. It is 

 strange, yet notorious, that young trees are often started, as it is 

 called, in the richest of soils ; while, in the same garden, we 

 see trees exhausted with long and hard bearing suffered to 

 starve by inches, as though the benefits of mulching or top- 

 dressing were not known or admitted. By mulch I do not 

 mean the highly fermented manure of the melon ground, which 

 has lost some 60 per cent of its qualities, and has little besides 

 bulk and blackness to recommend it; but animal manures, 

 prepared on just chemical principles (I hope the term chemical 

 will not give offence to any). Now, I do not contend that this 

 is to make a tree live for ever, but that it is applicable in 

 numerous instances where it is too commonly omitted. I think 

 it probable that bone would be highly eligible for this pur- 

 pose ; and I wish some of your scientific correspondents would 

 give us a tabular analysis of all the principal fruits and vege- 

 tables, showing us the relative value of their constituents, that 

 we might be able to apply our manures accordingly : for, if I 

 am rightly informed, the nitrogen of animal substances is only 

 taken up by a few, and then in limited degrees. But here I 

 am out of my depth. 



Another word on deep borders. I consider half the dis- 

 eases (commonly so called) of fruit trees referable to this very 



