THE SOUTHER 



N PLANTER. 



121 



loitiraltural lepartmrat 



E. O. EGGEIING, Contributor. 



"Tyro" Answered. 



In the Planter for January, at page 63, is an 

 article by one signing himself " Tyro," to 

 which we ought perhaps to devote some words 

 of reply, though the answer to be given is so 

 obvious, that we can hardly believe that any 

 other Tyro has failed to perceive it; nor have 

 we yet been able to decide whether this "Tyro" 

 was serious or merely " poking fun at us." 

 We have elected, however, to treat the article 

 in question as a serious inquiry for light, and 

 shall proceed to clear away the difficulty which 

 "Tyro" has started in his own mind. 



The difficulty is all of Tyro's origination, 

 and the inconsistency and conflict which he 

 fancies to exist between our articles on apples 

 and root-pruning, is only in his fancy. Tyro 

 seems to forget that the articles presented two 

 remedies for fruit trees, standing in very dif- 

 ferent situations, and were not stated as ap- 

 plicable to all trees or to the same trees. Trees 

 which needed manuring certainly w r ould not 

 require root-pruning, and vice versa. Just 

 here lies Tyro's blunder. Root- pruning we 

 carefully limited to such trees as from one 

 cause or another are superabundantly supplied 

 with sap, which expends itself in a prodigious 

 formation of wood and foliage without pro- 

 ducing fruit. These are peculiar, exceptional, 

 extreme cases, which require a peculiar, ex- 

 ceptional and extreme remedy, and we did not 

 suppose that any man would be simpleton 

 enough to regard this process as applicable to 

 all his fruit trees indiscriminately. It is to 

 such trees as we have described, and only to 

 such, that root-pruning is beneficial. 



On the other hand, while the general statement 

 is true, that to have apple trees bear well, and 

 to have them bear every year, you must give 

 them manure and gentle cultivation ; it is not 

 every apple tree that needs manuring. The 

 soil may be rich enough without the applica- 

 tion of manure and then it would be wasteful 

 folly to apply manure ; and an excessive ap- 

 plication of manure might prevent the tree 

 from bearing just as effectually as a want of 

 manure would in other cases. Even Tyro is, 



doubtless, familiar with the fact, that a soil 

 hardly rich enough for apples is too rich for 

 the peach; which is a light feeder compara- 

 tively, yet even the peach tree requires manure ; 

 and it is the general opinion of writers on the 

 subject, that the yellow r s may be entirely pre- 

 vented by judicious manuring and cultivation 

 of the peach tree. The apple is a gross feeder, 

 exhausts the soil rapidly, bears largely, and on 

 these several accounts requires a very rich 

 soil. 



Now, with the fact before him, that root- 

 pruning is prescribed for a tree w 7 hich is barren 

 from an over supply of nutriment, and manur- 

 ing for a tree barren from a lack of nourishment, 

 does Tyro observe any conflict in the positions 

 and reasonings of our two articles in a former 

 number of this paper ? 



Most likely Tyro would answer affirmatively, 

 for if we understand the force of language, 

 the article upon which we are commenting 

 goes to the extent of insisting that it is incon- 

 sistent to say, that barrenness is superinduced 

 by an over supply and also by an under supply 

 of nourishment from the soil. It may seem so 

 to Tyro, but it is not inconsistent; and if in- 

 consistent it is the fact, as we will show even 

 to Tyro's satisfaction. On the spots where the 

 slain of Waterloo were buried, for many years 

 wheat grew most luxuriously, and to a height 

 that seems incredible, but it never ripened — 

 that is, bore no fruit — because the soil was too 

 rich. On some of the poor lands of Eastern 

 Virginia, wdieat, when sown, never comes to 

 head, that is bears no fruit, because the 

 soil, is too poor to furnish the plant with a suf- 

 ficiency of nutriment. Now, does Tyro per- 

 ceive any inconsistency in the advice to the 

 ow r ner of the poor land, manure your fields, 

 put your wheat down with guano, and you 

 will reap a crop ; and in saying to the owner 

 of Waterloo, put in some other crop which is 

 more exhaustive than wheat, something which 

 feeds more grossly. Is not this the very ad- 

 vice which Tyro would give, and would he not 

 thereby affirm just w r hat we have affirmed, that 

 too much nourishment and too little nourish- 

 ment, is alike prejudicial to the fruitfulness of 

 the plant we rear. Undoubtedly ; and Tyro 

 would be acting precisely upon the principle 

 which governs a doctor, who takes away the 

 life blood from one patient and seeks by every 

 means to deplete the system, while with ano- 



