CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE WISLEY LABORATORY. 



97 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE WISLEY LABORATORY. 



XXVII. — Comparison of the Growth of Apple Trees Pruned 

 and not Pruned in the Season of Planting. 



By F. J. Chittenden, F.L.S. 



Introduction. — Most of the older writers on fruit-growing appear to 

 contemplate the planting of trees in the orchard with but one year's 

 growth from the bud or graft, and only rarely the transplanting of 

 older trees, and the directions they give, except when they deal with 

 principles, are not always clear in their application to trees of two, 

 three, or more years' growth. In London and Wise's abridgment 

 of De la Quintiney's great work,* for instance, the point is thus 

 treated : " There are two things to be prepar'd in planting of a Tree, 

 viz. the Head and the Root. As to the Head, there is but little 

 mystery in ordering that, either in Standard or Dwarf Trees ; it being 

 needful only to remember these two Points. 



" First, as we prejudice a Tree when we pluck it up, by weakening 

 it thereby, and abating its vigour and activity for some time ; so we 

 must therefore disburthen its Head, proportionable to the strength 

 and activity we take from it by recovering it to a new place, and 

 retrenching some of its Roots. 



" Secondly, we must be mindful to leave its Body no higher than is 

 convenient for the use the Tree is design'd for. ..." 



De la Quintiney evidently contemplated pruning the head as 

 well as the roots before planting, and he considers the balance of root 

 and shoot, and the training of the tree. The latter is of the utmost 

 importance in all trees in their nursery stages, and cannot be neglected 

 even when trees of three or four years of age are planted, while the 

 former principle has led to some discussion and to difference in 

 practice during later years. De la Quintiney advocated the re- 

 moval of all the fibrous roots, a proceeding which Switzer f a few 

 years later considered to be uncalled for when a tree was lifted with 

 a good ball and immediately replanted. Switzer, too, did not prune 

 the tops of his trees at the planting time (September to November), for 

 he writes : " We don't prune the Head till the cold Times and Frosts 



* De la Quintiney, M., The Complete Gard'ner. . . . Now Compendiously 

 Abridg'd, and made of more Use, with very considerable Improvements. By 

 George London and Henry Wise. Ed. 6 (1717), pp. 102, 103. 



t Switzer, S., The Practical Fruit Gardener (1724), p. 68 et seq. 



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