144 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



worn-out and dilapidated gardens. Perhaps the garden is such 

 a one as we sometimes see advertised as " fully stocked with 

 the choicest fruit-trees," &c, but on inspection these grand 

 examples are found to be (a) overgrown or (b) of unsuitable 

 varieties, and (c) the wall-trees are spurred and pruned to give a 

 neat appearance rather than a crop of fruit. If the owner enter 

 upon such a garden at Lady-day, he had better let things remain 

 as they are, and learn what trees to destroy from the results of 

 the summer and autumn, merely taking out the superfluous 

 inner shoots in August, and marking such trees as are unsuitable 

 or those which do not bear, retaining, of course, those which are 

 desirable to keep for shelter or for a blind to neighbouring 

 windows. When the leaves have fallen the whole should be 

 thoroughly overhauled. The condemned specimens should be 

 grubbed out, and care taken to get out of the soil all the old roots 

 and fibres, and, after the land has settled, new trees should be 

 introduced of the varieties already named. The remaining trees 

 should be carefully pruned. Wherever it is necessary to saw 

 out branches, the wound should be rounded off and the surface 

 smoothed with a sharp knife, to allow the young bark to creep 

 over and cover the exposed wood. The points of long shoots 

 should be shortened, and a winter dressing of surface manure be 

 given to those which have made but little growth. It too fre- 

 quently happens that trees in small gardens are planted by the 

 speculative builder, who has picked them up at some auction 

 sale, and, consequently, several trees of one variety are often 

 found in such gardens. Duplicates can be got rid of to make 

 room for new useful varieties. All prunings of trees should be 

 collected at once, and the small wood burned, to destroy insects, 

 &c, and the larger branches can be sawn up by the gardener 

 during frost and snow, when he cannot work outside. 



If the entry be made at Michaelmas the latter part of this 

 routine need only be carried out. In the case of unsuitable 

 varieties, recourse should again be had to the lists already given, 

 which are reliable ; and as but few trees in such gardens are 

 on stocks that will admit of root-pruning, it is best to clear them 

 out at once, and purchase fruiting trees from a reliable source. 

 As regards neglected wall-trees, overgrown Peaches and Nec- 

 tarines with coarse breastwood and wild shoots are better replaced 

 by Pears and Plums ; but old Plums can be recovered by cutting 



