July 6, 1912 



THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



505 



TOBACCO CULTURE BY 

 FRENCH PEASANTS- 



In these days, when the cry, Back to 

 the land," comes from our over-populated 

 towns and cities, any fresh incentive is a 

 valuable asset, especially if applicable to 

 small holdings and cottage gardens. We 

 have learnt so much of systematic garden- 

 ing from our French allies that we may 

 go a step further, and enquire how they 

 contrive to make the cultivation of tobacco 

 in a quite small way, and under conditions 

 almost precisely similar to our own, a suc- 

 cess financially as well as regards the 

 quality of the leaf 



In the Pas de Calais, principally in the 

 villages of Broscent, La Caloterio, and 

 Estsocq, and the neighbourhood of Montreuil 

 and Hesdin — ^the latter barely an hour from 

 Boulogne— nearly every cottage garden nas 

 its plot of strong, healthy tohacco plants. 



is advisable to slightly shelter the drying 

 leaves during the hottest hours of the 

 day ; otherwise they become brittle and 

 powdery. F. Mordaunt. 



SUMMER PRUNING, 



The question of pruning fruit trees is one 

 whicli is often confounded with that of 

 training. The latter practice has for its 

 sole object the regulation of the growth of 

 the tree in any desired manner, so that it 

 may develop along certain specified lines, 

 and form a certain shape or conformation 

 which appears most desirable to the cultiva- 

 tor. Pruning, on the other hand, achieves a 

 much more impoi-tant object. It produces, 

 or tends to produce, a well-balanced 

 growth ; it represses undesirable or over- 

 vigoroiis development in any part of the 

 tree, and encourages growth that may be 



of sap wliich comes from the roots, after- 

 wards returning it to the stem to form 

 woody fihre. In tliis manner, the judicious 

 stopping of the more vigorous growing 

 shoots will assist in the formation of fruit 

 buds- 



Generally, the reason offered by most 

 gardeners for summer pruning is that it 

 induces the formation of fruit buds for an- 

 other .reason. Others hold that it prevents 

 the ti oo from bi'comiiig over-crowded in the 

 centre, and admit.s air and .surdight to 

 the fruiting spurs. Both these rea^^ons are 

 souml ones, but it does not follow that the 

 urowtM- wlio summer juum^s his fruit trees 

 w ill always iiinl the pra'-li<-a! applic ation of 

 siicli throritvs of any u.m\ Maiiv liavt^ f4)und 

 it <»\tr<Miiely disappoint iii-j.. and. astlnTc is 

 no har<l-;in(l-fast rule to <)lt-ci v(Hl in this 

 coniUM'tion. wc <'an only Tail back on the 

 assumption that ihcy .vuninu'r [irumHl their 

 fruit trt't's iiccau^e it apjieared to be the 



■'J 



TOBACCO PATCH WITH DRYINO FRAMES. 



No expensive apparatus is necessary, nor 

 any very heavy work incurred, except what 

 can be done by the man of the house in 

 his off-hours, with the assistance of his wife 

 and family. All the plant necessary is a 

 frame of rough poles on which to suspend 

 the ropes of leaves for drying, and this can 

 be readily roofed in should the season be 

 a wet one ; also an outhouse or granary in 

 which to continue the gradual drying pro- 

 cess through the winter -until delivered to 

 the factory in the month of February. 



The tobacco seed is sown in frames in 

 March, and the young plants put out in 

 May. After planting the earth should 

 be kept well stirred and free from weeds 

 and the flower-head cut out directly the 

 flower buds are seen. At the end of 

 August the leaves are cut close down to the 

 crowns and are threaded on to cords and 

 hu ng up to dry on the wooden frames until 

 the end of September when they are sus- 

 pended under cover until the following Feb- 

 ruary. Should the sun be excessively hot it 



weak in another part. The main object is 

 precisely the encouragement of the fruiting 

 proclivities of the tree. 



In the summer time the growing shoots 

 of fruit trees are apt to develop more vigor- 

 ously than is good for the tree as a whole. 

 They tluMctort^ need some sort of artificial 

 repre:>H)n. and summer pruning is the prac- 

 tice we adopt in order to secure tliis re- 

 straint. Where trees are trained in ^ome 



custom to do so, without paying any atten- 

 tion to seasonable conditions, habit of 

 growth, soil conditions, or actual develop- 

 ment of the trees. 



to 



formal fashion, quite distinct from :;ature\s 

 own habit, and also, in the ca^ of dwarf general rule 

 fruit trees, .summer pruning must 'lot cn 

 account be ne^rlei'ted ; otherwise the 



One of the commonest mistakes is 

 commence the work too early. The lower 

 buds, which ought to remain in a dormant 

 state until the next season, are then ex- 

 cited into premature growth. whi(*h. of 

 course, is the very oppo.^it^e <'ffect to that 

 which it was intcndtxl to achieve. As a 



too 



a n \ 



floW of sap will be uneven, and generally at 

 the expense of those parts which are pro- 

 vided for the i4al)oration of fruit. There- 



evident that if the 



clcarlv 



fore, it IS , 



stroncrer-growing shoots at the upper part 

 of the tree are stoppi-d at the proper stage 

 the flow of sap will be diverted and 

 equalised, and there will be uniform action 

 throughout. The i ^--^^ 



with many exceptions to pi ove it— *^ummer 

 pruning may be performed quite safely at 

 the end of July or the beginning of August. 

 The spring growth of a normally vigorous 

 tree is usually completed about the mitklle 

 of July, always providing the season is a 

 normal one, of course, and it may then be 

 noticetl that suWquent growth is cluH^ke<l 

 for a time. ^Meanwhile, the wood hecomes 



and the bu<ls assimilate 



firmer. 



nourish- 



nu^nt. ' To summer prune the longt^t shoots 



