400 



HARDY FRUIT GARDEN. 



periodical primings of tins kind to a perfect 

 system ; and with this, and the use of less 

 luxuriant stocks, has secured a new character 

 in the habit and productiveness of many of our 

 best fruits. 



Eoot-pruning is often very carelessly and in- 

 efficiently performed; and hence, like many 

 other excellent things not properly done, the 

 result falls short of the operator's expectations, 

 and he becomes loud in condemning the prin- 

 ciple. It is not to be done by merely thrusting 

 down a blunt spade or other instrument all 

 round the tree, and mangling such roots as the 

 instrument comes in contact with — nor even by 

 digging a trench all round, and cutting off the 

 stronger horizontal roots that may come in the 

 way, leaving them ragged and lacerated at the 

 points of amputation. The evil sought to be 

 remedied much seldomer rests with such roots 

 than with those which descend in a perpendi- 

 cular direction under the centre of the tree, 

 which such a mode of operating cannot reach. 

 The best directions we have met with on this 

 subject are in a leading article in " The Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle" for 1841, p. 763, as the prac- 

 tice of Mr Crace, as applied to the roots of pear 

 trees which he wished to keep of small size. 

 He root-prunes annually, leaving the roots each 

 time about an inch longer than before. " He 

 does not leave the roots with their ends wounded, 

 as they would be if chopped through with a 

 spade ; but he cuts all the larger roots obliquely 

 with a sharp knife, so as to leave a clean stand- 

 ing wound, 3 or 4 inches long, with its face 

 downwards. The effect of this," he says, " is to 

 cause the wound to send forth a fan of fine 

 fibres from its whole circumference. The young 

 fibrous roots of a plant proceed in all cases 

 from the surface of the wood, and not from the 

 bark ; they only pierce the bark when they seem 

 to grow from it. When the root is crushed by 

 the blow of a blunt tool, all the part exposed to 

 the blow is killed, and soon decays. That decay 

 may either proceed no farther than the vicinity 

 of the injury, or, as will happen more frequently 

 than we suppose, it will spread and infect the 

 sound parts in contact with it. In either case 

 the production of young fibrous roots can only 

 take place by forcing them through the bark 

 which lies over the wood from which they have 

 to spring. But when the wound at the end of 

 a root is clean, decay will not take place ; and 

 the surface of the wood will produce fibres from 

 that part which is in contact with the earth. 

 No resistance is offered to this process ; on the 

 contrary, from the moment that the fibre be- 

 gins to form, it finds itself in contact with the 

 earth, where its food resides, and there, imbib- 

 ing vigour from the soil, it immediately contri- 

 butes to the general system something of that 

 organisable matter out of which more fibres are 

 to be produced." 



Many advocates for root-pruning recommend 

 the operation to be performed annually, " for," 

 as Mr Rivers remarks, " if a tree is suffered to 

 grow two, three, or more years, and then root- 

 pruned, it will receive a check if the spring be 

 dry, and the crop of fruit for one season will be 

 jeopardised ; therefore, those who are disin- 



clined to the annual operation, and yet wish to 

 confine the growth of their trees within limited 

 bounds by root-pruning — say once in three 

 years— should only operate upon one-third of 

 their trees in one season ; they will thus have 

 two-thirds in an unchecked bearing state." The 

 operation is usually thus performed : A trench 

 18 inches wide or so is opened all round the 

 tree, and about 2 feet distant from the stem ; 

 but this distance depends greatly on the size 

 and age of the tree, the object being to ascer- 

 tain the state and position of the roots, so that 

 those growing in a perpendicular direction, or 

 those of strong growth growing in a horizontal 

 direction, may be amputated to a proper length. 

 This is a necessary operation in most soils and 

 situations, but more especially so in cold and 

 wet soils, and in northern climates, because 

 it has the effect of causing the trees to make 

 less luxuriant growth, and hence enables the 

 wood to become more perfectly ripened in 

 autumn. Every fruit-bearing tree, under cer- 

 tain conditions, may be advantageously ope- 

 rated upon from the period of the fruit's ripen- 

 ing until the sap begins to flow in the roots. 

 These conditions appear to be favourable soils 

 and warm situations, where not only the fruit 

 but the wood also ripens early. Under circum- 

 stances of an opposite character, where the trees 

 grow late in autumn and ripen their wood im- 

 perfectly, it is often necessary to reverse the 

 operation, and root-prune during summer. There 

 is also some danger to be apprehended when 

 root-pruning is performed during winter, parti- 

 cularly in wet seasons and in damp soils, as the 

 roots that have been cut at that time are liable 

 to rot, and the wounds are long in healing. 



Mr Errington has shown that he has induced 

 fertility and moderate growth in pears which had 

 been long perfectly barren, and which had put 

 forth nothing but wood of unproductive luxuri- 

 ance,by root-pruning, even when the operation of 

 ringing had failed to produce a similar effect. 

 The order in which this cultivator places the 

 various kinds of fruit trees to which this process 

 has been beneficially extended is — Pears, apples, 

 plums, peaches, and nectarines, and then the 

 cherry and apricot. 



The pear, when upon the pear or free stock, 

 is peculiarly liable to form tap-roots, and when 

 these are growing luxuriantly without bearing, 

 it is almost, he says, impossible to root-prune 

 them too severely, at least the deeper roots. 

 " If in an orchard, and the trees are of some 

 size, they may be curtailed all round ; the 

 amount of root removed bearing, of course,*a 

 direct ratio to the amount of luxuriance. In 

 the espalier border we must be content to get 

 at them how we can, remembering that even the 

 cutting of one side will assuredly affect the 

 whole system of the tree, although not, perhaps, 

 in an equal degree ; at least we dare not, in the 

 present state of gardening science, affirm it." 



Root-pruning the apple. — The apple, even on 

 the crab stock, is much less liable to send down 

 tap-roots than the pear on the free or pear 

 stock ; it therefore requires this operation to 

 be performed with some degree of caution. If 

 too severely limited at the roots, the tree is apt 



