184 



rUOCKhDINOB OK Tiir. 



nor apple Nvotikl previously fruit. 'I'he soil poor and shallow, 

 upon roi k. The efre( t is to retard the blossom and give vigour 

 to the t onstitution. Flesh and flavour said not to be affected. 

 Budding or grafting alike successful, on old stocks or on young, 

 by the usual process ; care must however be taken to remove 

 none of the young shoots which the stock may make during the 

 first season after working. In the succeeding spring, before ve- 

 getation conunences, all such redundaiU growth to be cut out 

 closely, and tiic graft alone permitted to push in freedom. Its 

 growth will be luxuriant ." Some other practices of the German 

 (iardens canu' to my knowledge at the same time relative to 

 a kind of intermediate process between budding and grafting, 

 which at a future period I shall have much pleasure in commu- 

 nicating, if it should be thought in any respect valuable ; as 

 also the composition with which the scions are surrounded in 

 preference to our grafting clay. The note which 1 have given 

 at length may, if the facts are not already familiar to you, appear 

 wortli attention at an early ])eriod : and it may be needful to 

 prepare the stocks. I have already desired my own gardener to 

 make the experiment ■ and will communicate the result in due 

 time. The only doubt is as regards the effect upon the quality 

 of the fruit ; the other particulars I have established to my satis- 

 faction. 



R. A. HORNSBY. 



With reference to this letter, the following observation was 

 made by the Vice Secretary j 



We have long ago tried some experiments upon the Mountain- 

 Ash as a stock for Pear trees, it having been one amongst the 

 various kinds of stocks on which the pear was grafted in the 

 Garden of the Society. The trees grew very well but scarcely 

 so vigorously as those on the Pear stock, or even on the Quince. 

 The fruit was produced at an earlier age, of good size, and there 

 was no perceptible difference in the flavour, when compared with 

 those produced under similar circumstances, but on Pear stocks. 

 We did not observe the blossoms retarded. The trees however 

 did not seem as if they would be long-lived owing to the unequal 

 swelling of the respective species. The Pear increased in dia- 

 meter more rapidly than the Mountain-Ash. But as the latter 

 species is more hardy than the Quince, and will thrive in almost 

 any soil, it might be used advantageously in some situations. 



The following were the principal subjects of exhibition 3 



From Mr. Parsons, Gardener to Augustin George, Esq., of 



