102 



THE MINIATURE ERUIT GARDEN. 



To conclude, I will, as a guide to the amateur, give 

 the following summary : — If the soil be very rich, so 

 as to induce the trees planted in it to make a growth 

 of eighteen inches in one season, they may be removed 

 annually till this vigorous growth ceases. If the trees 

 make an annual growth only of eight to ten inches, 

 the trees may be removed biennially, and I may add 

 that, in soils in which trees grow slowly, root-pruning 

 is more advantageous than removal, as less check is 

 given to vegetation. ' 



DOUBLE GRAFTING- OF FRUIT TREES. 



I have not been able to find this mode of culture, 

 likely to be so beneficial to fruit gardens in England, 

 alluded to by the many authors of works on fruit trees ; 

 it may be " as old as the hills," and have no claim to 

 originality, but few so-called new ideas have. I can 

 only therefore state how it originated here some fif- 

 teen or twenty years since. I am not aware that it 

 has been practised by the clever fruit tree cultivators 

 of France and Belgium ; if so, it has been recently 

 copied from English practice, but I never remember 

 having seen it carried out. 



Its history, briefly told, is as follows : — I observed, 

 when budding and grafting pears on the quince stock, 

 that some varieties did not grow freely on that stock, 

 when budded or grafted ; particularly the Gansel's 

 Bergamot and the Autumn Bergamot, the Seckel, the 

 Marie Louise, Knight's Monarch, and some others. 

 Now, as the first and last mentioned are notorious for 

 their shy bearing qualities, while the trees are young, 



