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ANNUAL ROOT-CUTTING. 



acquire sustenance for the vegetable structure. When, however, 

 the reasons are carefully examined, it will, I think, be perceived, 

 that such a practice under certain circumstances must be pro- 

 ductive of decided benefit ; more especially with regard to flavour 

 in the fruit. Some distinction should be here drawn, in order to 

 throw light on the matter, between those fruit-bearing shrubs or 

 trees which produce their fruit chiefly on the young shoots of 

 the preceding year, and those which produce principally from 

 what the gardener terms " spurs." In casting a glance over 

 fruit-bearing trees or plants in general, it will be obvious that 

 with few and trifling exceptions, Nature has in this respect 

 marked out two classes in broad and well-defined characters. 



In order to convey a ready idea of these two classes to those 

 who are not practically engaged in gardening, I would adduce 

 the following, viz. : — 



Fruits bearing chiefly on the spur : 

 The apricot ; 



The red and white currant ; 

 The plum ; and 



Fruits bearing chiefly on the young wood : 

 The gooseberry; 

 The vine ; 

 The black currant ; 

 The raspberry. 



These will suffice to throw light on the matter in hand. 



The first thing I would observe is, that from the circumstance 

 of the spurs being for the most part situated on or near to the 

 main stems, any undue extension of the young shoots above 

 and around must of necessity produce such an amount of shade 

 in the neighbourhood of the spurs as cannot do otherwise than 

 end in barrenness. The chances of light, in fact, to the home 

 spurs of a gross red currant bush are about as great as to those of 

 a tuft of fern in a dense wood. Who can wonder, then, at such 

 bushes becoming gradually denuded of spurs, or at their bearing 

 badly coloured and worse-flavoured fruit ? 



As to the other class, the blossoms being formed on the an- 

 nual shoots, are in precisely the situation most congenial as to 

 light, and will also bear high cultivation much better than the 

 former. 



With regard to annual root-cutting, I must here observe, that 

 the necessity for it will not arise on poor and unmanured soils ; it 

 is chiefly in our kitchen gardens, where, from a long course of 

 tillage, accompanied by very frequent manurings, the soil has 

 become what is commonly termed effete ; by which we under- 

 stand, that the mechanical texture is altered, partly through the 



