864 JOURNAL OF THE EOYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
The treatment adopted to bring it into its present fruitful condition 
was as follows : At the winter pruning time, all the spurs from the two 
(right and left) bottom horizontal branches were cut clean away, causing 
the dormant eyes to break into young upright shoots the following spring- 
The best placed of these were selected and trained up like cordons, the 
horizontal branches above them being removed gradually and as necessary 
to make room for the young upright-growing shoots. When all the old 
horizontal branches were gone in this Way, the main trunk was itself cut 
off obliquely just above the two right and left bottom branches. It then 
occurred to Mr. Matthews that if he let the ends of the two main 
branches down into the ground they might root, and so supply greater 
vigour to the extremities. 80 he cut a few notches on the under side of 
the main right and left branches, and let them down into the ground, as 
may be noticed in the figure, and trod the soil down firmly upon them. 
The result has more than answered his expectations. The tree has rooted 
all along the branches, and has thus been placed on what may be called 
a dual basis of support. Mr. Matthews intends now to continue his 
experiment by gradually cutting away all the old roots, to within a foot 
or so of the trunk, and then to burrow under it and let it down, so that 
the two horizontal branches, may be their whole length below the soil 
and form fresh roots, instead of only at the ends, and it will then, he 
thinks, be possible in a year or two to cut away the whole of the old 
trunk and roots altogether, and make the tree entirely depend upon its 
newly formed fibrous roots. 
By this method old trees may in a few years be made young again in 
root and branch, and brought into first-rate condition without any (or 
comparatively any) loss of crop, for by only cutting away the old hori- 
zontal branches one or two at a time, those that are left will bear a crop 
of fruit at least as good as they would otherwise have done ; and by 
the time they have all been removed the young wood will be in fruiting 
condition 
THE BOTTLING OF FRUIT. 
In many and many a country house during the marvellously prolific fruit 
season of the year 1900 the housekeeper must have wished for some 
quick and simple, but eft'ectual, method of bottling and preserving all the 
surplus fruit. There are, of course, various methods. In Vol. xx., pp. Iv, 
lvii,and in Vol. xxi.,p. 121, attention was drawn to an admirable invention 
of Messrs. De Luca, of 6 Long Lane, Aldersgate Street, London, which 
received Bronze and Silver Medals from the Society, and which took the 
form of an automatically self-closing bottle, a method which allowed the 
heated air and steam to escape from the bottle as long as it was in, the 
cooking pan on the fire, but sealed it up hermetically as soon as the 
bottles were taken out of the hot water and began to cool. F or this is the 
chief necessity to ensure the keeping of the fruit, that the air, when once 
expelled from the bottles by the heating, shall not be allowed in the 
smallest possible degree to get back into them again : one atom of re- 
entering air is sufficient to make the whole bottleful mildew and decay. 
