222 Observations on the Gardening of Belgium, 



and, with common care, bear fruit very regularly. The court 

 pendu and the rennet ripen their fruit, in most years, very well 

 as standards. The same insect which eats a hole to the heart 

 of the apple in England is also very prevalent here, and causes 

 numbei's to fall off every year. 



Peaches are not nearly so well flavoured about Ghent as in 

 England. They appear to me as too mealy ; and good necta- 

 rines are very scarce. The pruning of the peach and nectarine 

 trees is very singular, when compared with what is practised in 

 England. Scarcely a tree is ever pruned in this neighbourhood 

 before the month of April ; many even prefer waiting till the 

 young fruit is just formed, and the flowers are falling oflf, before 

 they let a knife approach the tree : at which time, or a little 

 before, all the trees undergo a complete whitewashing with lime- 

 water, to kill the insects. I have observed that those trees 

 which are so washed are sure to produce the finest fruit, and to 

 be more free from insects than those which 1 have, for experi- 

 ment, left unwashed. This washing, which is also given annually 

 to the apple and pear tree, is, I believe, principally confined to 

 those places where the soil is sandy in excess ; as, in the country 

 about Liege, they dare not make use of this process, for fear of 

 killing the tree. So convinced now am I of the utility of an 

 annual whitewashing to my trees, that I practise it upon a col- 

 lection of Lancashire gooseberries, immediately after I have 

 pruned them in February ; and have found the best effects 

 resulting from it, never, since the time 1 began to practise it, 

 having; found an insect on the trees. In June, the lona; shoots 

 of the peach are laid in close to the wall, but are not much cut 

 out ; it is in April that the knife is so much used. The borders 

 are usually cropped with some annual crop, such as lettuce, 

 spinach, &c., which does not appear to injure the roots of the 

 trees. The largest and oldest peach trees I have seen in Bel- 

 gium are at Marie L'Erne, under the direction of a gardener 

 named Vandenbergen ; and they are said to be remarkably well 

 managed. 



Standard Cherries produce plenty of fruit, though there are 

 but few varieties : a kind with a very short stalk, growing well 

 in the neighbourhood of Bruges, is the favourite. Few, if any, 

 of the fine English cherries are to be found here. Cherry trees 

 are propagated by grafting enfente in the month of April or end 

 of March, and throw out but little gum. I am inclined to think 

 that the practice of plastering over the wounds with the grafting 

 composition here made use of prevents gumming from taking 

 place. This composition consists of pitch, rosin, and bees' wax, 

 m nearly equal quantities, boiled over a fire, and, when liquid, 

 applied to cover the place where the graft is made. This keeps 

 out the rain, stops the bleeding of the tree, and gives way very 



