SUBURBAN FRUIT- GROWING. 



33? 



the rest. All lime and brick rubble should be saved. The ashes 

 of rubbish heaps, soot, sweepings of the poultry yard, dovecote, 

 and stable, refuse from the kitchen, weeds, and leaves should be 

 collected and spread over the ground to be turned into the bottom 

 of the trench, so as to be buried with the stale and exhausted 

 soil from the surface. 



When the trenching is completed the surface should be 

 heavily dressed with quicklime and be left rough for the winter. 

 In the following spring a liberal dressing of quarter-inch bones or 

 coarse bone meal should be lightly forked in and a green crop, 

 say of tares, raised, which might with advantage be dug in to 

 freshen and enrich the soil. The land would then be fit for 

 planting with fruit trees in the following autumn. Stable litter — 

 I will not call it manure — is of but little value except as a mulch 

 in dry or frosty weather. This should be spread round the trees 

 after planting, and when there is a good crop a surface dressing 

 of any good manure, consisting mainly of phosphates and potash 

 rather than nitrates, should be sown. The trees will require to 

 be watered in dry hot weather, as the roots, if planted properly, 

 are near the surface. 



I have tried planting maiden trees, but whether pruned the 

 first year or the second I have never been able to make 

 such good bushes or pyramids as those obtained from the 

 nurseries under the description of " Two-year-olds, with some 

 fruit spurs." 



With respect to pruning it has been humorously said that 

 " there are two sets of fools — those who prune too much and 

 those who don't prune at all." I have found it better to be 

 cautious in the use of the pruning-knife after the foundation 

 of the tree has been laid, and to confine pruning to thinning out 

 objectionable shoots rather than to shortening them back. 

 Summer is to be preferred to winter pruning, as the wounds 

 heal over more quickly and leave less opportunity to canker 

 germs and American blight to effect a lodgment. 



Summer pinching has its uses, but bushes pinched into 

 stunted growth can never be got out of it. I prefer a more 

 natural system. 



Cokdons. 



These succeed for a time, and some varieties of fruit give 

 wonderfully fine specimens from them. This is especially 



