214 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ball should crumble and fall, exposing the whole mass of roots, 

 it may be as well to dig up the tree entirely and cut in the roots, 

 and replant it as much on the surface as possible ; this may 

 check and imperil the crop for the first year. Such trees will 

 need to be well secured by stakes after the operation, and care is 

 required as to syringing as long as foliage holds, and further 

 mulching in the spring. If the pyramids are very strong, one 

 side of the roots only need be pruned at an operation. In order 

 to keep up the supply of fruit it is best to root-prune only a 

 portion of the stock at any one time, retaining the rest for 

 future attention. 



Cordons on walls, or as horizontal edgings, are more readily 

 root-pruned, as being on fibrous-rooting stocks they can, if 

 regularly lifted every two or three years, be attended to without 

 loss of crop ; but in all cases they ought to be root-pruned before 

 the foliage falls, and after the crop is gathered. 



It frequently happens that Apricots, Peaches, and Nectarines 

 indoors make too free growth ; but being on a Plum stock, their 

 roots are abundant, and mostly on the surface of the borders, 

 so they can be readily lifted entire, and be pruned and replaced, 

 adding fresh friable soil round the roots, and with a good water- 

 ing, and daily syringing for fourteen days, they recover from their 

 move and do not suffer at all, but are benefited in every way by 

 the operation. When the trees are off the trellis or support 

 they should be deprived of every useless or ill-placed shoot, and 

 the tree be dressed with the usual materials to cleanse it. The 

 operation of root-pruning can be safely performed as early as 

 Midsummer, if an early forced crop has been produced ; but 

 when root-pruning has to be done thus early some shade is 

 necessary, and the peach-house should be kept damp and close 

 for a few days. Peaches, Nectarines, and Apricots on outside 

 walls may be root-pruned in October. 



Figs are greatly benefited by root-pruning, and a check to 

 the formation of gross wood is very desirable. I am in favour 

 of the introduction of brickbats, stones, and clinkers, with 

 ashes, as they absorb warmth, and the Fig roots delight in contact 

 with them. Under glass Figs are readily attended to, but as a 

 rule they grow too freely outside to ripen their wood, so that a 

 liberal root-pruning and root -lifting are most beneficial. 



Plums generally grow too freely in a young state, and are 



