SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
217 
RENOVATION OF OED TREES — THE PEAR 
on Quince Stock, «fcc. 
Editor Southern Cultivator — A subscriber to the 
Southern Cultivator proposed, in a former number of 
your paper (1858), the question; “How can old Pear 
Trees be restored to health &c.T’ As I have not seen that 
question answered, will you allow me to give you my 
views on the subject '? I waited till some more able and 
practical man should have replied to the query, but not 
finding it answered at all, I venture a few remarks, the 
result of over thirty years experience, which, I trust, will 
open the debate for more ^nd better information. 
I have seen in my days many an old trej mutilated 
and grafted with better sorts of fruit, and the uniform re- 
sult of my observations is, that in no case have I seen it 
succeed well. It is true. Pears or Apples have grown for 
2 or 4 years upon n.ew grafts, but there was no lasting re- 
sult in any case that I have witnessed. The reason of 
such partial or entire failure lies in the root of Nature’s 
laws. 
If it be true to assert that “oli trees do not like to be 
transplanted,” it is also true that they do not like to be 
mutilated. Any one who has studied the co-relation be- 
tween the roots and the upper structure of a tree is aware 
of the necessity of maintaining a just equilibrium between 
the feeders and the wasters (supposing, or considering 
leaves, fruits and blossoms to be waste, as, in part they 
are). A comparatively old or rather mature tree can bet- 
ter stand the process of a judicious r?utilation of roots 
and limbs to be transplanted in another and better condition 
than that same tree will stand the removal of almost all of 
its limbs and no corresponding suppression of roots tak- 
ing place. 
Before the wounds made by the cutting off of a large 
limb (say from 4 to 6 inches in diameter) can be healed, 
decay sets in, especially in such climates as this, where 
life is more active and destruction, also, in the same ratio. 
That wound cannot be healed afterwards, and makes a 
permanent sore by which the limb suffers, after the first 
or second year of the operation, and afterwards perishes. 
The structure of a tree is, like all the products of Nature, 
a most harmonious, ensemble of all the constituents required 
to make a unit, a creation by itself. Liber, bark, lignum, 
sap vessels, limbs, leaves and roots are all in due propor- 
tion to make that creation perfect according to its natural 
laws and destination. If lightning or storms, or any 
other cause disturb these laws by breaking or tearing part 
of the upper structure ; or of grubs or moisture or natural 
obstacles and destructive agents disturb part of the roots, 
every one can witness the general check in the growth, 
and almost the principle of decay setting in. 
So with a tree submitted to artificial mutilation. The 
due proportion between roots, limbs, sap and leaves is 
broken and altered, the sap not finding its former chanels 
throws out sickly shoots in places where they should not 
be, or it is checked, thrown back upon the roots where 
it causes repletion, and abnormal extension ; or we find 
it checked, strangled in some vessels and causing partial 
death or atrophia by want of proper outlets in proportion 
to its abundance supplied by the roots, and sent on the 
old errand, for it is a strange fact that trees seem to be 
things of habit and are almost always taken by surprise 
by our interference. A remarkable instance of this dis- 
position is to be found in the trees imported from the 
North. 
The first spring (whon they are planted during the 
winter or fall) they send out blossoms and leaves at the 
first gentle breese and sunshine which so often makes our 
Southern winters so delightful in January or February — 
the result is that they are sometimes nipped by the frost 
in March or April while the old customers keep their dor. 
mant buds composedly, and I suppose must laugh at the 
greeyi ones, which are displaying their inexperience to 
the soft breeses and the unwonted blue and warm sky. 
The next season or spring following, their education will 
be complete — Trees raised in the South are never 
found guilty of su:h foolish tricks and behave as 
aborigenes according to the laws of their land. Excuse, 
Mr. Editor, this digression and let us return to our sub- 
ject. 
Any horticulturist familiar with the laws governing 
plants and trees, will see the impossibility of a restoration 
of old decaying trees by any process of grafting or severe 
pruning. 
If a tree, old as it is, retains still a healthy frame, sound 
vessels, good roots and limbs, such a tree can be restored 
to a better health by digging at a distance around, or 
draining; or irrigation (whatever the particular case and 
locality might require) and in all casses by the application 
of new good soil, mould, lime, phosphate or any other 
constituent. 
If the tree should be grafted at all being in a favorite 
locality or an old friend not easily to be parted with I 
should select the soundest among the middle sized limbs 
put on these grafts of a hardy, robust variety shorten and 
mutilate the balance of the remaining limbs in due pro- 
portion, and when the grafts have fairly taken watch and 
nip and reduce the shoots of the old limbs so as to bring 
more sap, to the grafts without suddenly disturbing 
the whole economy of the tree. Two years afterwards, 
having promoted the growth of new shoots upon the old 
limbs, I should graft upon those and carefully suppress 
the remainder of the old limbs ; by that time the first 
grafts will have acquired strength enough to carry away 
and use up the abundant sap and the new grafts will safe- 
ly start on new wood. It would be a good policy to dig 
around the tree and disturb some of the roots to prevent 
the exuberant sap to run to the old channels— by the ad- 
dition of fertilizers as above hinted new roots will be 
formed in due course of the growth of the new wood, and 
in due proportion also with the development of the 
grafts. 
But my conclusion shall ever be that it is better to re- 
move an old tree altogether ; renew or change the soil, 
plant another species of fruit or forest tree in the place 
where you take up the old one ; unless you restore the 
soil and fit it for the same kind of tree by a good supply 
new or field soil. An old tree requires much attention ; 
it is a sorrowful sight, a forlorn hope ; while a young, 
thrifty tree is full of life and promise, and will be in full 
bearing by the time you shall be compelled to cut down 
the thing to which nature “has numbered the days of its 
life.” 
I have heard some complaint and inquiries also about 
the worm destroying the quince budded pear trees. That 
never happens when the pear bud or graft starts fairly 
upon the quince and when the stock is covered— but 
when the variety does not suit the quince stock, sickness 
is the result and, in Southern climates, where life is so ac- 
tive, destruction keeps pace with it, and worms set in. 
This is a natural law all over the world. The more na- 
ture promotes the growth of a plant by an appropriated 
soil, genial climate, absence of drawbacks (as frosts, &c.) 
the more she is in haste to do away with all sickly 
things. As in social life where the battle is only won by 
the strong in body or mind, so in nature’s broad fields 
and forests there is only room for the robust and vigorous 
products. 
Under such conditions we must, of course, pay more 
attention than we have to do in the middle States, and 
certainly more than in Great Britain and under moderate 
temperatures to the congeniality between the stocks and 
the grafts ; to the hardiness of certain varieties, or in other 
words, to their adaptation to this more marked climate. 
