484 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Many gardeners put dung largely into the second, and even the third, 

 spit beneath the surface. Is this desirable? The nitrifying bacteria 

 and other agents which convert the unavailable plant-food into available 

 forms occur most largely in the surface soil. Experiments made with 

 different soils and for different plants have induced me — and others who 

 have seen my results — to apply dung near the surface, but as thoroughly 

 as possible incorporated with the soil. When cultivating, the surface soil 

 rich in humus may, with advantage, be intermixed with that underlying, 

 but the fresh dung should be kept in the first spit. 



Underground irrigation has engaged considerable attention, more 

 especially in connection with the disposal and utilisation of house sewage. 

 There can be no doubt that, when possible, this substance should be 

 speedily transmitted to the earth in such a condition and position that it 

 can be promptly changed to innocuous and, indeed, useful forms. Inter- 

 mittent action is essential and easily obtained. Raspberries form an 

 especially suitable crop for irrigating in the manner indicated, but in no 

 case should sewage be used for irrigating salads and such like. The 

 irrigatory system is composed of ordinary drainage pipes, unglazed and 

 un jointed, is equally available for ordinary watering, and forms a particu- 

 larly easy, cheap, and effective means of ensuring underground irrigation. 



Should hardy fruit trees, such as apples, pears, and the like, be 

 pruned at the time of planting, or after ? Most experts have said, " the 

 following season," but recently this view has been modified by many to 

 pruning the first spring after planting. Careful experiments made for 

 a number of years — at first with two or three, later with many trees — 

 clearly indicated the desirability of priming so as properly to balance a 

 young tree before planting. In transplanting a tree many of the roots are 

 unavoidably injured: these require careful pruning, and when doing this 

 necessary operation it is recommended so to prune the top that the whole 

 plant, top and bottom, may be well balanced, with a slight preponderance 

 to the root. Therefore the better root the plant has the less need to 

 prune the top hard, and vice versa. 



Summer pruning has been much discussed lately, and as it has 

 engaged much of my attention for about fifteen years it may be desirable 

 to make some comments thereon. We prune such trees as dwarf apples 

 and pears, first, to produce a shapely plant and furnish available space 

 with branches ; and, secondly, to induce fruitfulness by spur-formation 

 along the whole of each branch. Generally speaking, once a spur is 

 formed it should be maintained. Summer pruning should prevent the 

 formation of useless wood, and in this way conserve energy, which the 

 common methods do not do. Very satisfactory results have sometimes 

 been obtained by pressing the terminal bud of a lateral shoot during the 

 last few days of May sufficiently hard to injure it materially, but not 

 destroy it. This operation has often arrested elongation and induced a 

 swelling of the basal part of the shoot and enlargement of the buds in 

 that part. Frequently the formation of an additional small leaf or two 

 indicates development towards a rosette or young spur. This operation 

 has not by any means invariably been a success ; but even the failures 

 have usually indicated that the work was in the right direction, if the 

 operation can be easily and certainly performed so as to bring it within 



