Jan. 2, 1899.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURrST. 
455 
in July, 1S95, Ifc may interest some of your readers, 
and serve to show liov/ difficult it is to keep up 
local interest in such matters. When I left Battica.loa 
in 1895, the experiment was dropped. Fish culture 
should be made a department of the Government, 
as it is in America, not for the purposes of sport, 
but as a cheap, easy, and efficient means of 
increasing the food-supply of the country. 
Battlcaloa, 30ih July, 1895. 
Sir,— As I am leavicg the district and shall not 
therefore ba able to continue my experiment in 
fish culture I have the honour to return the balance 
in my hands out of the BlOO voted to me together 
■with a statement and vouchers, &c. for what I 
have already expended. I trust, however, that my 
experiments will be co\itinued by the Local Board. 
They are very simple and efficacious, and will 
result in the lake being furnished with a yearly 
supply of the best kinds of fish that are to be 
obtained in the locality. My method is a very 
simple one. It is to create sanctuaries where the 
fish can breed freely and where they can find their 
way iuto the lake during flood time. My present 
and only sanctuary is the backwater in front of the 
Flagstaff at the bar. I have dammed this np at 
either end to prevent ingress and egress. I drag 
it once a mauth with a madel, at a cost of R5 each 
time, to get rid of the predatory fish, the owner of 
the madel taking all the fish he catches except 
those mentioned below which are thrown back alive 
into the water. I stop all net fishing in it and I 
stock it from time to time with fair sized Chettal 
f? Gourami>, Mannale (Mullet) and Kela'ian (? Smelt). 
Those are ihe best "kinds to propagate ; they are 
good eating ; they grow quickly ; they breed very 
freely and they are nou predatory. During flood time 
my dams will be washed away and the progeny 
from the parent stock, then well grown and able to 
take care of thomselvea, will escape into the lake 
to replenish the, stock there. When the floods are 
over the dams, which are very cheap, should be 
renewed, the predatory fish should be knpt down as 
I am. keeping, them down now and the pond re- 
stocked with a few hundred more fish of each kind, 
I eniploy as watchers two of the guards at the 
Custom house and I pay them E2-50 a month, each. 
I am Sir, Your obdt. servant; 
(Sigd.) C, J. LeMesurieb. 
Btatemeut referred to :— 
Watchers .. .. B 7'50 
Coolies, &a. .. . . K29 iS0 
Timber .. B 7-82 
Fish . . . . R 4-45 
Total.. .R49-27 
(Sgd.) C. J. LEMESuniEK. 
—Local " Independent." 
THE PRINCIPLES AND PIIACTICE OF 
PRUNING. 
There are many ways in which the gardener may 
avail himself of Nature's workmanship, and one of 
these consists in the production of a great variety 
of luscious fruit from trees which, in the wild state, 
bear fruit of a single uniform type, eour, insipid, 
and unfit tor the human palate. 
From the Crab he has obtsiined the nutritive Apple; 
from the wild Pear all ihe juicy varieties of that 
fruit ; from the wild Gooseberry, scarce larger than 
a bullet, the swollen, sweet-tasting berries of our 
kitchen garden, an inch across; and so on with very 
numerous other kinds. 
How has tliis feat, far-reaching indeed in its 
beneficent results, been brought about ? By dint 
of careful and patient cultivation through centuries, 
if not millennia of year?, of tlia rough-hewn products 
pf Nature disyotae'd around us iu the woi'ld. 
Almost all horticulturists agree that pruning shonl 
play -a part in the cultivation of our fruit-trees, fo'' 
its usefulness has been established over and ove'^ 
again. 
The practice of pruning is founded on the fun- 
damental biological fact that in the growth and life- 
history of every plant there are two forces aL work — 
the force which tends to the production of vege- 
tative, and that which tends to the formation of 
reproductive organs. 
In Nature an even balance between these two 
forces is almost always ultimately struck, the one 
ever subserving the other, neither being in any way 
exaggerated or hurried, the ultimate result being that 
condition v/hich is, to all intents and purposes, 
most perfectly adapted to the plant's imniedinte 
environment, and hence to the needs of its ade- 
quate and full existence. 
As attractive-lijoking, sweet-tasting fruit is always 
produced by a plant in order that animals of some 
kind or other may pluck it, devour it, and so help 
towards the dispersal of the seeds which it contains, 
this result being finally attained, the plant has 
realised the aim of its e.xistence. The Crab-tree and 
the wild Gooseberry-bush have reached the point of 
sufficiency for the needs of their life in the product- 
ion of the fruit which the wild birds probably fully 
enjoy. 
But civilised man, appearing on the scene, will 
have something still better than this; and in order 
to atti'.in his end, he, alongside of other and equally 
impdrtant modes of cultivation, such aa planting iu 
properly-treated soil, cross-breeding, agiignmeut of 
a spacious position, and protection from insect-pests, 
sets to work to upset the equilibrium established by 
Nature between the two forces above-mentioned, 
thus creating a disturbing and restraining influence 
upon the free course of the tree's life. For he 
recognises the principle that, by I'estraining the force 
which tends to the formation of vegetative organs, 
he can increase that which tends to the formation 
of reproductive orfjaus. This artificial interference 
of nun's part with the ordinary life-conditions of the 
tree must lessen the vigour and shorten the life of 
latter to a certain extent ; but wo shall see that 
the advantage accruing to man from his action far 
outweighs any loss of robustness or shorter duration 
of fruit-bearing activity which the tree may suffer 
therefrom. Hereafter, tiie cultivated Appletree of the 
orchard will lack the strong vigour of the wild Crab- 
tree of the forest; but the latter, if it could do bo, 
would marvel at the wonderful change in the 
character of the fruit produced by its descendant. 
Man, by the swift process of artificial selection, has 
followed in the wake of the slower process of naturil 
selection, and the result is unique. 
We have now to consider some of the more 
detailed methods by which tlie force which tends to 
the formation of vegetative organs is diverted, and 
that which tends to the formation of reproductive 
organs, viz., the fruit allowed freer play. 
It is but natural that the orchard fruit-tree, if left 
to itself, as regards the knife, will from vegetative 
growths, and fruit pretty much after the same fashion 
as the wild Crab-tree. There may be some difference 
in quality of the fruit, owing to the richer soil and 
more favourable situation and precedent ancestry, 
but this difference will be but slight and inappreci- 
able. Something else will have to be done iu order 
to induce the predominance of fruit-formation to 
that of vegetative growth. And this is pruning. 
This important factor must come into play in tb« 
very first infancy of tho tree, as it gradnallj' develops 
and grows from tho grafted or budded scion. The 
pruning at this stage of its life history will depend 
on tho mode of training to which the tree is here- 
after to be subjected. If the future fruit-bearor is to 
be a wall or espallir-tree, tho growth of the main 
stem or leader must be subordinated and more or 
less sacrificed to the growth and development of the 
)a I rill branches ; for, if Nature were allowed free play, 
till in:in sttm of the troe would soon overtop the 
wall uad the lateral branches becpme euboidiuatf 
