REMARKS APPLICABLE TO FRUIT-TREES GENERALLY. 



613 



nucifera ; the Bread-fruit, Artocarpus incisa ; the Chinese Lemon^ Triphasia 

 auraiitiola ; the True Lotus, Zizyphus Lotus ; the Jujube Tree, Z. Jujuba; 

 the Kaki, Diospyros Kaki. The last four will fruit in a greenhouse. To 

 these various others might be added from the last edition of the Encyclopcedia 

 of Gardening, and from the 1st edition of the Horticultural Society's Cata- 

 logue of Fruits. 



SuBSECT. IX. — Remarks applicable to Fruit'trees, and Fruit-hearing Plants 



generally. 



13G3. Standard fruit-trees occasion less trouble in managing, and are 

 more certain in bearing, than either wall-trees or espaliers ; though there 

 are some trees, as the peach, which are too tender for being grown as stand- 

 ards, and others, as the vine, which are unsuitable. In standard trees, the 

 top will generally be adjusted to the root naturally, and hence in such 

 trees very little pruning will become requisite beyond that of thinning out 

 crossing or crowded branches ; but, in wall and espalier trees, as the top is 

 disproportionately small to the roots, pruning, or disbudding, &C.5 as a sub- 

 stitute, becomes necessary during the whole period of their existence. The 

 nearest approach which a wall- tree can be made to have to a standard, is 

 when in the case of north and south walls, one half of the branches are 

 trained on the east side of the wall, and the other half on the west side ; 

 or when one tree is made to cover both sides of a double (899) espalier. 

 Pruning may be rendered almost unnecessary by disbudding, disleafing, and 

 stopping ; but this will not always be the best course to pursue. When the 

 root of a wall-tree is to be strengthened, more shoots should be left than are 

 required for being laid in at the winter pruning ; and when the root is to be 

 weakened, all or a part of the shoots produced may be left, but they must 

 be disleafed or stopped as fast as they advance in growth (772) ; or the stem 

 may be ringed (770); or the young shoots twisted or broken down (774) ; 

 or the roots pruned (776). 



Keeping roots near the surface, and encouraging the production of surface 

 roots, will have a tendency to moderate the production of wood ; and deep 

 planting and stirring the surface to one foot or more in depth, will throw the 

 roots down to a moister stratum, and encourage the production of wood, but 

 of an inferior quality for the future production of fruit. Dry sandy 

 soil, not rich, will produce moderate growth and precocity, both in the fruit 

 and the ripening of the wood, and rich deep soil the contrary ; hence dry 

 soil, comparatively poor, ought to be preferred for cold late situations, in 

 which it is always desirable to ripen early both the fruit and the wood. By 

 depriving a tree or a plant of its first crop of buds, a second crop will be 

 produced the same season, but some weeks later ; and on this principle lato 

 crops of leaves may be produced on all plants, and of fruit on all such trees 

 and plants as have the power of formmg blossom-buds, and expanding them 

 in the course of one season ; as, for example, the raspbeny, strawberry, 

 grape, and all ammal and biennial fruit-bearing plants whatever. As all 

 plants require a certain period of rest, by bringing on this period sooner in 

 autumn, by disleafing and depriving the roots of moisture by thatching the 

 ground over them, they will be predisposed to vegetate sooner in spring. Hence 

 the advantage of pruning all trees, the young wood of which is not liable to 

 be injured by frost, immediately after the fall of the leaf. All wood that is 

 not thoroughly ripened should be protected during winter by branches, fern. 



