124 Transactions of the London Horticultural Society. 



trees under my care, I cut the points of the roots without hesitation, taking 

 care to reduce them in proportion to the degree of superfluous luxuriance. 

 This root-cutting system I have pursued for seven years at least, and find it 

 every thing that can be desired. 



" With regard to winter pruning, I am not aware that there is anything 

 peculiar in my practice, unless it be that I thin my young wood to a very great 

 extent. This may alarm some persons, who may be afraid of not getting suffi- 

 cient fruit; but this plan, with a continual thinning and disbudding in summer, 

 so as to lose no sunshine on the leaves of the shoots intended for the next 

 year's crop, renders the buds so plump and well ripened that there need be no 

 fear in that respect. 



" After the winter pruning, I immediately stop every wound made by the 

 knife, and every place whence proceeds gummy exudations, with a coat of 

 thick white paint : this painting, if I may so term it, is repeated, and perhaps 

 a third time, on all the larger wounds. This I have found of eminent use ; 

 for I believe it is a tolerably well known fact, that the entrance of air and 

 moisture into such wounds is, in many cases, the cause of premature decay. 

 The wounds being dressed in this manner, I immediately stove the house with 

 sulphur, blended with sawdust, and burnt in shallow pans, and afterwards 

 dress the tree over two or three times with soft soap, sulphur, and tobacco- 

 water, brushing it carefully into every bud and crevice with a painting brush. 

 This mixture is not made so strong as recommended by some of our gardening 

 authors, as I depend much on the careful brushing and flooding every part of 

 the tree. 



" At the commencement of forcing, the same routine is pursued as before 

 described : and I may here remark on the evil effects of high temperature 

 at night ; for, as I before observed, I have had my thermometer as low as 34° 

 at night, when the fruit was as large as peas, without any injury whatever. 

 Now this has been through sheer necessity ; for, in my anxiety to get fruit 

 early, I should have kept it probably to nearly 50°, could I have obtained 

 that heat ; but I am convinced that it would have been worse for the tree ; 

 for one of the necessary consequences that ensues in a case of the kind is the 

 elongation of the internode, as botanists term it, which lengthening, if it be 

 not the cause, is well known as a sign of barrenness. From the period that 

 the fruit are beginning to swell off, until they commence ripening, my trees 

 have most copious syringings and sleamings ; excepting that, in the months 

 of February or March, in cold dull weather, I am a little more niggardly of 

 water, taking care especially, that, if I syringe in the afternoon, it be done 

 early, so as to have the leaves dry by the evening ; as a temperature of 34° to 

 40° by night and a wet leaf would by no means agree. The house is, of course, 

 fumigated twice or thrice, or, in fact, on the very first appearance of green fly. 

 As for red spider, I seldom, by this management, see one. 



" The young wood, through all the growing period, receives the utmost 

 attention. Every robber is stopped with the finger and thumb as soon as 

 about four eyes or buds long ; every superfluous shoot that is not wanted for 

 the next year's bearing is taken away ; and all the inferior shoots, which are 

 much below the proper strength, are trained with the growing points as nearly 

 perpendicular as possible, in order to decoy the sap into them. 



" As soon as I perceive the least change towards ripening in the fruit, I 

 stop the points of all the young wood, with the exception of a few of the 

 weaker shoots at the lower part of the tree ; and these I keep growing until 

 the end of the season, in order to get, as I before observed, as much sap in 

 them as possible. In the course of their ripening, abundance of air is given, 

 both night and day, and every leaf which shades the fruit is entirely removed. 

 I need scarcely add, that they cannot ripen too slowly : the slower they 

 ripen, if not absolutely starved, the better. Syringing is, of course, withheld 

 altogether, as well as the steaming; but, as soon as the last fruit is gathered, 

 the tree is completely battered with water, morning and evening, and the 

 house shut up early in the afternoon, with a thermometer of 90° to 95° of 



