262 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
during months of more agreeable weather conditions than obtain 
during the winter months, I venture to quote a passage from " The 
Clergyman's Recreation," by John Laurence, 1718, wherein this old 
writer contrasts the advantages of budding over pruning in the follow- 
ing words : "I prefer Inoculation, because it may be performed by 
any Gentleman himself with more pleasure and less danger to his 
Health. It requires no daubing with Clay, only a Penknife and a little 
woollen Yarn, which are both portable, and therefore always ready 
to be made use of, whenever his Meditation shall give way to his 
Pleasure. Besides this Operation is performed in Summer and warm 
Weather, when it is healthful as well as pleasant to be busied in a garden 
with some such little amusement. Whereas the Season of Grafting is 
in the Spring, when there is more of taking cold in a Nursery, where 
you must expect wet feet and dirty hands." Had he lived 200 years 
later, we can imagine that he would have expressed the same notions 
in regard to Lorette's methods ; indeed, as will be seen immediately, 
he seems to have been near practising the method itself. 
Lorette's original methods are applied not only to the Pear-tree with 
its commonly three-year period for fruit-blossom development, and 
to the Apple-tree with its usually two-year period, but also, as he 
informed me, to the Quince-tree with its one-year period. Moreover, 
the principle of only pruning during activity is applicable to the Goose- 
berry and Currant. Lastly, the Peach-tree (and perhaps one might 
presume all the Prunus tribe) is submitted to special practices which 
have been elaborated by this astute and industrious worker. 
Retrospective and Historical. 
It was towards the end of June 1914 (19th) that I paid an all too 
short visit to Monsieur Lorette at his plantations at Wagnonville 
(near Douai, Nord) to see and to learn at headquarters more of the 
system than had already been observed previously in Champagne 
and Normandy. In his book * there were many obscure points 
requiring elucidation, and I would gladly have paid him another visit 
before venturing to appear before you to-day ; but unfortunately that 
has not been possible, for since the early days of the war the place has 
been in the occupation of the Germans, and correspondence on the 
subject has likewise been interrupted. It is to be hoped that the trees 
and their master may be found to be uninjured when at last they are 
freed from the enemy. In his plantation at the time of my visit there 
were trees which had been pruned on M. Lorette's ideas for eighteen 
years, no doubt with progressive modifications as time passed. Al- 
though some of my trees had been submitted to some extent to the 
system in 191 3, it was only after my visit that I commenced in a more 
thorough manner on trees which now are in their fourth year of 
treatment. 
Without any pretensions to having made an exhaustive search in 
* La Taille Lorette, 1st ed. 1913, and 2nd ed. 1914. Versailles. 
