February 3, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



91 



hang it on. In gardening we have hitherto been allowed no 

 pegs to carry our memoranda, which, in consequence, are found 

 sadly mixed together in the pocket when needed for use. 



M. Du Breuil's treatise, therefore, appears to me to deserve a 

 ?iearty welcome, if only as a step in the right direction. Whether 

 his easy dictum will stand the test of experience remains to be 

 proved ; but the calm and dignified composure of his tone, his 

 simplicity and brevity, seem to elevate horticulture into the rank 

 of the exact sciences. 



An instance of this lucidity is his practice of invariably dis- 

 tinguishing the pruning necessary for the formation of the tree 

 from the pruning which is intended to insure the annual crop 

 of fruii. In most treatises we find one set of directions for 

 pruning the Apple, and another for the Plum ; but no division 

 of this kind, although the two kinds of pruning mentioned above 

 are most distinct in their aim and object. 



M. Du Breuil's favourite trees seem to be the Pear and the 

 Peaoh. For the Pear he describes at length six modes of training. 

 " The pyramid," which by the way, is twice the height and size 

 of the tree with which Mr. Rivers has made us familiar ; " the 

 goblet," fitted for windy gardens ; " tbe cone," or cypress- 

 shaped tree, which seems to be a pyramid with less strongly- 

 developed branches ; " the Verrier palmette," which may be 

 described as a horizontal espalier with the termination of the 

 branches carried up from a horizontal to a perpendicular 

 position, each lower branch being outside, and in its angle em- 

 bracing the branch above it —the shape one sometimes sees in 

 the arms of a candelabrum. This is intended for the wall, and 

 takes fourteen years to complete. 



Then comes " the cordon oblique," which has been already 

 described in Mr. Brehaut's interesting brochure, in which the 

 trees run up the wall at an angle of 45°, presenting in their 

 closely-spurred and rounded form some distant resemblance to a 

 cable. Lastly, we have the " double contra espalier in vertical 

 cordon," which, if its name does not frighten them, will, we 

 think, win the favour of many a cottage gardener. 



Imagine a double row of Pear trees, each a slender stem of 

 9 feet high, the rows close together, 6 inches only between them, 

 while the trees are planted zigzag, that one row may not shade 

 the other. Twelve inches separate tree from tree in the row. 

 Thus each tree has a radius of 6 inches for the utmost limit of 

 its branches ; a leafy cable 9 feet in length, thick Bet with spurs 

 and fruit-buds. The trees are secured from wind by Btrong 

 posts sunk into the ground at every 20 feet, and connected to- 

 gether by fencing-wire. This wire steadies a nine-foot lath to 

 which each tree is fastened. Copper wire, it strikes us, would 

 be lighter than a lath, and shade less. What a picture in 

 autumn this lofty, leafy wall studded with yellow fruit ! How 

 safe from wind! how easily protected in spring! It is twice as 

 fruitful as ''the pyramid," the author assures us, comes into 

 bearing in half the time, and attains its perfect form in six years. 

 But this wall of foliage will not be oomplete without the low 

 edging which M. Du Breuil wishes to see accompany it on either 

 side. About 1 yard from its foot he carries a dwarf hedge of 

 Apple, formed by a single rod running horizontally 18 inches 

 from the ground, and pruned as a cordon. The trees that 

 nourish this rod are planted 5 feet apart, and bent horizontally, 

 till the stem of one overtakes and touches its neighbour, into 

 whose stock its extremity is then inarched. In this way, when 

 the line is complete, the sap flows continuously through the 

 whole, and the closely-united brotherhood become an exact 

 emblem of the strong ministering to the necessities of the weak. 

 These are also held in their place by low posts and fencing-wire. 

 The directions for Peach-tree training are quite as minute. He 

 equally admits only two methods for this tree, "the cordon 

 oblique," and the fen-shape reduced to the exactitude of a ma- 

 thematical system. The illustrations here, and, indeed, through- 

 out the book, are profuse, evidently copied from living specimens, 

 and in every way admissible ; they add greatly to the value of 

 the work. 



Standard Peaches in orchard-houses he does not contemplate. 

 But much of great service to the orchard-house cultivator may 

 be learnt. It is not uncommon, for instance, to find the laterals 

 on a too-luxuriant Peach producing 3 inches of bare stem with- 

 out a bud either upon it or at the base. For this evil, which 

 will throw next year's wood too far " from home," M. Du 

 Breuil has a remedy. By suppressing all flower-buds at the 

 winter pruning, and half-severing tbe lateral at its base, he 

 compels it to emit wood-buds there. 



Here is another wrinkle. It is known that a fruit^bad may be 



grafted in August on the Pear, and bear fruit the following year. 

 M. Du Breuil tells us that this graft has the extraordinary effect 

 of making all the fruit on the branch above it larger than thoy 

 would otherwise be. He compares it to the effect produced on 

 fruit by an annular ring taken off the bark — a method applied, 

 I believe, by English gardeners to branches of the Vine. 



At page 156 is a statement which will cause some surprise. 

 "It may be thought that the blossoms upon these small 

 branches unaccompanied by a wood-bud, must prove sterile, and 

 ought to be cut off at pruning, as though of no value. Quite 

 the contrary, however. Experience proves that these blossoms 

 produce the finest fruit." And he straightway reoommends the 

 shoot to be cut above a fruit-bud, although there are no wood- 

 buds upon it anywhere except at the base. 



Those who send fruit to exhibitions will be glad to learn that 

 it is possible to administer a tonic to the objects of their anxiety, 

 and that they are very much the better for a solution of sul- 

 phate of iron. 



The several plans for equalising the growth of the tree, re- 

 ducing the gross, and invigorating the feeble branches, will be 

 found interesting. Trees are capricious, and will have their 

 enfans gates, favourite gluttons, and rude robber-shoots; but none 

 are allowed to remain in the well-disciplined gymnase of M. Du 

 Breuil. " Suavlter in modo,fortiter in re," is his motto. With- 

 out the least harshness, but by the never-failing, almost im- 

 perceptible pressure of a dominant will, the plethoric rebel is 

 brought into order, and made to abate his pride. His head is 

 bent on one side out of the way of the stimulating sap, or the 

 foliage which matures it for his uses is half clipped from him, or 

 his spirit is tamed by pinching, or his heart broken by being 

 made to carry all the fruit, or he is hampered by imprisonment 

 and close nailing, while his poor brother wantons in the wind ; 

 or if the worst comes to the worst, a dark hole formed by an 

 overhanging shutter brings him to his senses, and all the while 

 his sickly brother is made much of, petted with a tonic, en- 

 couraged by the best places, and allowed to run not as he pleases, 

 till he is strong enough to match his rival, and win his fair share 

 of the niaternaljuices. 



The translation is tolerably executed ; but in another edition, 

 which will certainly soon be called for, it will bo well to avoid 

 such gallicisms, as " extension," used throughout the book for 

 last year's growth, and " anticipative " bud (page 69), which 

 seems to mean wood-bud. Some obscurity is caused by the 

 use of the word "branch," which in common English-is' used 

 to denote a shoot of some size, but here is applied to small 

 shoots, spurs, and even embryo fruit-buds. 



How are we to understand the following (page 175) ? — " When 

 the shoots of the successive branch extensions have attained A 

 length of about 3 inches, suppress only the buds behind, -then 

 the double or treble buds ;" which after some study we take to 

 mean, " when the shoots from last year's wood have attained 

 the length of 3 inches, suppress the shoots behind the branch, 

 and also the double or treble shoots." 



At pages 72, 138, 160, 178, and 180, other errors have caught 

 our eye. Are we to suppose, too, that the cost of copper wire 

 is so great in France, as to make a wire trellis amount' to hs. per 

 square yard, which is half as much again as the cost of the wall 

 in an English stone country ? 



We are left in the dark as to what are Mr. Wardle'e con- 

 tributions to the present edition. His remarks are sometimes 

 imbedded in the text, and sometimes are found in footnotes. It 

 would have been better if they had been confined to the notes 

 altogether. We should then have had M. Du Breuil's direobjbns 

 fitted for a southern climate, and the necessary qualifications 

 and adaptations to our own in notes. As it is, we do not know 

 at times whether we are listening to the opinions of M. Du 

 Breuil, or those of his translator; and, on the other hand, some 

 statements that need explanation in England, as, for example, 

 that Apple trees suffer from heat, are left as they are. 



But these are minor blemishes easily removed, and all 'who 

 love the fruit garden are indebted to the writers who have 

 brought to their notice this well-conBidered and scientific 

 treatise.— Wyesede. 



Bet/ere Sotebfin Peak. — This Pear has kept with : nib 

 wonderfully well this season. I have still (Jan. 23rd), five frhit 

 left. I am not sure I had any ripe in September, but I had' it: 

 through October, November, December, and a few in thepr'esent 

 month. Can this be said of any other good Pear ? Those that 



