xxii PEOCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE. 



January 15, 1901. 

 Dr. M. T. Masters, F.R.S., in the Chair, and seven members present. 



Loss ofBeserve Matter in Pruniiig. — The following commimication on 

 pruning Vines was received from Mr. Thomas Sharpe, Westbury, Wilts : — 

 " The method in vogue of managing the growth and subsequent pruning of 

 Vines appears to result in considerable loss of reserve matter. Physiology 

 teaches that the compounds elaborated in the leaves, after necessary 

 supplies are made to current growth and fruit, are stored for future use. 

 Some of these are stored for the use of the buds on the shoot the following 

 spring. No. 1, the lowest or basal bud, is required for the fruiting lateral 

 next season ; but No. 2, the next, and onwards, are not, and are therefore 

 cut oft" at pruning-time, resulting in the loss of all the reserve matter 

 stored in the shoot above No. 1. If I understand aright, every living cell 

 of a plant is a perfect entity, though the connecting strands of protoplasm 

 may manifest a quasi-symbiosis, the supreme object of which is perpetua- 

 tion eitber sexually or vegetatively as environment may render exigent. 

 A mole, a rat, a rabbit, or even a toad may burrow under a Strawberry 

 plant in summer, destroying more or less of the roots. The plant, 

 deprived of a full supply of sustenance, becomes a suitable host for red- 

 spider, which makes its wonted havoc. The plant in consequence makes 

 but miserable growth in August and September. The flowers of this 

 plant next season will be small, but the pollen abundant, the growth of 

 the tori stunted, but it may bear a mass of seeds. Again, a healthy 

 Blenheim Apple tree attracts attention, the owner having arranged a 

 manure heap in such a position that the liquid from it will keep the tree 

 oversupplied. Result : More growth the first season, but a diminishing 

 growth afterwards for a few years, then two heavy crops of wretched 

 fruit, all core and seeds. In these two instances of untoward environment 

 the plants have adapted themselves by concentrating all their stamina to 

 seed production. Can we turn such adaptations to account by the preven- 

 tion of preparation for vegetative perpetuation above No. 1 bud in the 

 Vine's growth ? Acting upon these thoughts, I disbudded my laterals 

 above No. 1 last July. Apart from really satisfactory appearance, the 

 Hamburgs exhibited no striking developments near the spurs, but the 

 Muscats show protuberances at the bases of the spurs, and these are 

 quite conspicuous on that part of the rod which is four years old." 



Mr. Hudson observed that it is always the basal bud which is used 

 for stock purposes, as the eyes or buds decrease in strength from below 

 upwards along the lateral shoots. The basal bud always gives the most 

 compact bunches of Grapes, the others supplying looser ones. He added 

 that no pruning should be done until all the leaves had fallen. If the 

 reserve material be contained in the shoot above the basal bud, and it be 

 suggested by Mr. Sharpe that this could be utilised, then every bud must 

 be suppressed except the basal. Experiments would show, by comparison 

 with those in which the lateral had been pruned down to the basal buds. 



