REPORT OF THE APPLE AND PEAR CONFERENCE. 



51 



Lastly, as to the pruning and training. I seldom do any 

 pruning in winter. It is a more pleasant occupation in summer, 

 and is a very simple operation, merely consisting in thinning out 

 the young wood when it is too much crowded, and pinching off 

 the points of any vigorous young growths that are likely to run 

 out too far for the others. If they grow too much it is easy to 

 dig round the circumference of the roots, and to cut underneath 

 to sever any roots that are running directly downwards. This 

 will be enough to throw any tree into bearing. To allow a fruit 

 tree to form a thicket of wood in the summer, and then to cut it 

 all off in the autumn, is the right treatment for a pollard-willow, 

 but will not do for fruit trees of any kind. There should be more 

 reverence for life in the mind of the pruner, and then such reck- 

 less pruning would not be possible. 



It is quite time that a better system of fruit-tree culture 

 should be adopted in small as well as in large gardens. Why 

 should amateurs purchase fruit when they can grow it them- 

 selves, and have all the pleasure as well as the profits? It is 

 useless to sit down and blame the climate, the soil, or anything 

 else, when the real cause is a bad selection of varieties, or bad 

 cultivation. Let the old worn-out cankered trees be rooted out 

 from old gardens, and their places be filled with approved sorts 

 likely to do well in the neighbourhood, for each district has its 

 special varieties. 



Preparation of the ground by trenching and manuring is 

 necessary, and whether the soil is light over gravel or a clay soil 

 over heavy clay, the results will be satisfactory, and justify all 

 the expenditure. 



ENEMIES OF THE APPLE AND PEAR. 



By Mr. J. Fraser, F.R.H.S., Kew. 



Both animal and vegetable enemies are numerous, but the 

 former probably outnumber the latter considerably. They range 

 from the minute gall mites, about one-hundredth of an inch in 

 length, up to birds, hares, rabbits, and cattle. Vegetable enemies 

 are, however, none the less destructive sometimes, and certain 

 kinds are very difficult or impossible to exterminate on account of 

 their microscopic size, and more especially when hypodermal, 

 that is, living beneath the epidermis of the host plant. 



Canker. 



All diseases are attributable to some cause or other, even if it 

 is difficult to detect what that may be. Science may yet deter- 

 mine the true cause of canker, eve a if it fail to suggest a cure. 



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