August 10, 1876. J 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



Ill 







WEEKLY CALENDAR 



■ 















Day 



01 



Mouth 



Day 



of 

 Week. 



AUGUST 10—16, 1876. 



Average 



Temperature near 



London. 



Sun 

 Rises. 



Sun 

 Sets. 



Moon 

 Rises. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Glook 

 before 

 Sun. 



Day 



of 



Year. 



10 

 11 



12 

 IS 

 14 

 15 

 16 



Th 



F 



S 



Suh 



M 



To 



W 



Taunton Deaue Show. 



Filey Show. 



Otley 8now. 



9 Sunday after Trinity. 



Weston-super-Mare Show. 



Preston and Shrewsbury Shows. Royal Horticultural 

 f Society— Fruit and Floral Committees at 11 a.m. 



Day. 

 75.1 

 75.8 

 75.1 

 71.5 

 72.9 

 73.1 

 73.0 



Night. 

 51.9 

 50.7 

 50.5 

 50.0 

 508 

 50.0 

 51.5 



Mean. 

 63 5 

 632 

 62.8 

 62.3 

 61.8 

 61.6 

 62.2 



h. m. 

 4 40 

 4 41 

 4 43 

 4 45 

 4 46 

 4 48 

 4 49 



h. m. 

 7 30 

 7 28 

 7 26 

 7 24 

 7 23 

 7 21 

 7 19 



h. m. 

 9 5 

 9 19 

 9 39 



10 7 



10 51 



11 54 

 mora. 



h. m. 



10 27 



11 49 

 la 11 

 2 88 

 4 1 

 6 12 

 6 6 



Days. 

 20 

 21 

 < 



as 



24 

 25 

 26 



III. s. 



5 3 

 4 53 

 4 43 

 4 83 

 4 22 

 4 10 

 8 58 



223 

 224 

 225 

 226 

 227 

 228 

 229 



From observations taken near London daring forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 74.2 3 ; and its night temperature 

 50.6°. 



WATERING FRUIT TREES. 



iSf® NQUESTIONABLY a matter of considerable 

 |^j|P[ importance is the supply of water to our 

 hardy fruits. It is especially important 

 during seasons when the trees are laden 

 with heavy crops of fruit. It is clear that 

 these fruits cannot be perfected without an 

 adequate supply of water, After an exceed- 

 ingly productive fruit year how often is the 

 next year barren. The trees cannot perfect 

 their exhausting crops and at the same time 

 lay up a sufficient store of material for the crop next 

 following. 



It is sometimes forgotten that fruit trees have this 

 double function to perform — they must not only carry 

 the crop to perfection, but they must also provide the 

 blossom for the following season. Now a fruit tree will 

 not divide its force equally between these two require- 

 ments. With the tree the primary object is to perfect 

 fruit and ripen seed, the production of blossom for the 

 year following - ' being secondary. Its whole resources 

 are appropriated first to satisfy the cravings of the fruit, 

 and only when it has surplus power is this devoted to 

 the extension of the tree and the preparation of future 

 crops. This is seen by an overladen tree refusing to make 

 growth. How many trees — how many orchards are 

 there — which have a sort of historical notoriety for bearing 

 "every other year?" They are found in almost every 

 parish where fruit is extensively grown — it is hardly fair 

 to say cultivated. Such trees have only power to perfect 

 their fruit, and have no surplusage to provide for the 

 next season's crop. As masters we must guide and assist 

 the trees, and they will be good servants. We must not 

 work the trees unreasonably, neither must we nurse and 

 pamper, or the position becomes reversed, and the servant 

 is in the position of master, and does what he will and 

 not what we wish. 



Now when once a tree is fruitful it is guided to further 

 fruitfulness by the way it is treated. It is not too much 

 to say that thousands of trees are every year over- 

 weighted, and the fruit must be thinned or the roots 

 must be watered. If either or both these aids are not 

 afforded the fruit of the year will not only be excessive, 

 but the trees for next, and it may be future years, will be 

 rendered unprofitable. " But we cannot thin the fruit or 

 water the trees of an orchard," some may say. Certainly 

 not ; but apart from that, a quick decision and setting to 

 work instead of arguing the point of how little can be 

 done will result in immense benefit to many trees within 

 the reach of our means, and which by lethargy, fancied 

 inability to aid, or erroneous reasoning may be left to 

 become debilitated, and neither contribute profit nor credit 

 to the grower. 



But besides lethargy there are erroneous notions to 

 combat. It may be held that fruit trees do not require 

 water, simply because excess of moisture by undrained 

 ground is injurious. There are those who have such a 

 horror of water that nothing could induce them to water 



No. 802.— Vol. XXXI., Nbw SwttEB, 



a Vine border or a fruit tree. They point to the evils 

 arising from roots reaching the subsoil, and hence refuse 

 to apply water. It is true a wet hungry subsoil is per- 

 nicious to fruit trees ; but how come the roots there ? 

 Trees must have water, and if it is not afforded them 

 near the surface they will ramble in search of it and food 

 into the most sour, ungenerous, and waterlogged soil. 

 They do not rush down there in the winter, but it is in 

 the summer when the sun is exhausting them of life that 

 they strike down for the support which they cannot find 

 near the surface. Unfortunately they cannot in the 

 autumn withdraw their roots, or the evil would be much 

 lessened. Giving trees, including Vines, good support 

 near the surface in the summer is the best preventive of 

 their being in a deleterious medium in the winter. The 

 best Grapes and the finest fruits of all kinds are produced 

 by copious supplies of water. It is surprising how much 

 water a fruit tree in full bearing will appropriate, and 

 never without benefit to its exhaustive crop of fruit. 



But all trees do not require to be watered, yet it is easy 

 to determine those which would be benefited by a thorough 

 feeding at the roots. If a tree old or young is making a 

 free growth of wood no stimulant is needed ; but if, as is 

 the ease with so many trees at the present time, the 

 fruit is appropriating all the support which the roots can 

 supply, and there is no surplus strength to provide healthy 

 spurs and satisfactory extension growth, then the fruit 

 must be further thinned, or support must be given to the 

 roots. Wall trees which are heavily laden and growing 

 in light soil on hot aspects will be much benefited by the 

 application of liquid manure, and over this a surface 

 dressing to arrest evaporation. A day's work now and 

 then devoted to this matter would be more profitable 

 than is generally understood. Vine borders, the surface 

 of which is impoverished and dry, should be enriched by 

 the same means, for the roots will not be so active to 

 dive down in search of food and moisture if a due supply 

 is. afforded them nearer the surface. Pyramid and bush 

 fruit trees crushed to inactivity by a heavy load of fruit 

 will derive great assistance by a thorough application of 

 liquid food. Even a prized old Apple tree, it may be a 

 Ribston Pippin, or any sort the fruit of which has a 

 special value, will have vigour imparted to its weakened 

 frame by a cartload of liquid manure given to the 

 roots. A Pear tree which is carrying pecks of fruit, it 

 may be a Citron des Carmes or other approved sort, from 

 which it is desirable to have all the fruit possible and of 

 good quality, will rejoice in the gift of a liberal supply of 

 liquid manure. It will make all the difference between 

 cracked and deformed fruit and full-sized smooth speci- 

 mens — between refreshing juiciness and full flavour, and 

 dry mealiness and insipid flesh. 



Experience in a dry district enables me to speak with 

 confidence of the great benefit which heavily-laden trees, 

 young and old, on walls or in the open garden, derive 

 from one or two thorough soakings of liquid manure 

 during the swelling season. A liquid-manure tank which 

 takes the drainings from dunghills is a store of great 

 value and a rich larder of food for exhausted fruit trees. 



No. 1451.— Vol. LVI„ Old Series. 



