410 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ May 21, 1885. 
rivals should be checked by the removal of their tips. This 
will also enable the weaker to advance, and in the end a 
good finish may be anticipated. Occasionally a terminal 
growth on one of the side branches of a tree may be so much 
stronger than its neighbours that a similar check is very 
salutary; and even a central leader of a young tree, if very 
strong, may be topped when a foot or more in length, and 
an additional tier of branches be secured, for the growths 
issuing from a luxuriant shoot will be quite strong enough 
for those below them that have not been pinched. 
As a rule it is sound practice in piaching the growths of 
fruit trees to complete the upper parts of the trees first, 
deferring the lower portions for a week or more, but always 
acting with discrimination in accordance with the strength 
of the growths and the ultimate formation of the tree. Any 
growths of any fruit tree that need shortening with the object 
of forming spurs may be topped now, leaving about six full 
leaves. There is no fear of the back buds starting—not half 
so much danger, indeed, as of their doing so when long 
shoots are permitted to extend and cut off in July, as the 
root-action of trees, incited by the very extension of the 
parts, is then much more powerful than it is now. Strong 
shoots-make strong roots, and excessive luxuriance can be 
sensibly averted by early and persistent suppression of the 
growths. 
Young standard fruit trees—Apples for instance—are often 
sadly neglected. The long straight shoots of hundreds of 
them are neither shortened at the time of planting nor after¬ 
wards. The result of that great error is that a few shoots 
push from towards the extremities, while the lower portions, 
to the extent often of 18 inches or more, are practically 
destitute of growths, and the first crop the trees bear drags 
down the branches, which never get up again. Such trees 
are practically spoiled, or at least they are manifestly inferior 
to others of the same age that have been pruned and the sub¬ 
sequent growths intelligently pinched during the first few 
years after planting. I would rather shorten the young 
shoots now with tufts of growth near their tips of trees 
planted last autumn or this spring than leave them as they 
are, on the principle of choosing the lesser of two evils. I 
have recently seen two rather striking examples of ill and 
well managed fruit trees established four or five years. The 
former were not shortened after planting, nor have they been 
pruned since. The branches are long, thin, and “ sprawling,” 
looking as if they would be years before they will bear a 
ladder against them, much less a man on it; the others have 
been pruned and the young growths pinched systematically— 
I may say scientifically. The main branches of these trees 
are so strong that they would almost or quite bear the owner 
of them, who is not a “ feather-weight,” while the branches 
right down to the main stem were wreathed with blossom, 
and, weather permitting, will eventually be clustered with 
fruit. They are in condition to bear more fruit this year 
than the untended trees possibly can do, and are immeasurably 
superior, having regard to their future career and productive¬ 
ness. They are strong, well formed, and studded with 
spurs, and will need little further pruning ; they have been 
so well managed that they cannot very well get wrong— 
managed, I may say, by Dr. Hogg in one of his orchards; 
but even the doctor could not make the wrongly managed, 
neglected, unpruned, thin, sprawling examples in contrast 
with them, right. A good deal more might be said on fruit 
trees in spring, but someone else must say it, as I have some¬ 
thing else to do.— J. Weight. 
ME. CHAELES TURNER. 
You have not been rightly informed respecting the late 
Mr. Turner’s first start in life. He was not a native of 
Salisbury, but of Wilton, three miles from Salisbury. He 
was never employed in the late Mr. Keynes’ nursery. Mr. 
Keynes was not engaged in the nursery trade till some 
time after Mr. Turner was in possession of the Royal Nur¬ 
series at Slough. His first start was with an intimate friend 
of my early days, the late Mr. Squibb of Salisbury, a very clever 
florist and nurseryman. He was the raiser of the Hon. Mrs. 
Harris Dahlia, which was sent out the same year as Brown’s 
Desdemona; they were both exhibited as seedlings of the year 
at the first Salisbury Dahlia Show in, I believe, 1834 or 1835. 
Mr. Turner was, I think, fourteen or fifteen years of age when he 
came to Mr. Squibb. He was there some years; from there he 
went to Corme’s, at New Cross Nurseries. Mr. Squibb regretted 
letting him go, and asked me to try to get him to return, leaving 
to me to offer such inducements as I thought fair to both. I did 
so, and Mr. Turner came back and remained for 1 do not now 
remember how long. Mr Brown of the Slough Nurseries took 
a fancy to him, and engaged him to manage his Dahlias and 
other florist flowers. When Brown retired Mr. Turner started a 
business at Chalvey. Mr. Cutler Brown took the nurseries at 
Slough, and carried them on for a number of years. When he 
retired Mr Turner took them, and all who have had the pleasure 
of seeing the Slough establishment must have seen that a master 
mind ruled it all.—W. Dodds. 
Charles Turner gone ! The kin? of florists, the genial and 
kindly companion, the successful exhibitor, the indefatigable 
raiser of new treasures for our gardens, the quick and correct 
judge, we are, alas ! to see no more. The news of his death will 
come as a shock to many who have not seen him of late, but it 
is no surprise to those who have witnessed the gradual breaking 
up that surely betokened the end was not far off; but although 
no surprise, it is as perhaps the greater sorrow, for we have seen 
that decay which, perhaps, many who admired him have not even 
heard of. 
I think that the title I have given him above as king of 
florists will be impugned by no one. There are others who in 
some one particular department of floriculture may have equalled 
him—none could excel him ; but he was so successful in everything 
that he took up, that it would be futile to place any name on an 
equality with his, and that as a florist we shall not look on his 
like again is, I fear, too true. 
My first acquaintance with “ Charley Turner,” as his friends 
were wont to call him, was just forty years ago. He was 
then a young and handsome man, gifted with a splendid tenor 
voice, but in a very small way of business, living at Chalvey, near 
Slough, but even then known far and wide by his success in 
growing Pansies and Pinks. Those were days when what are 
called florist’s flowei's had not fallen into the shade around 
London as they have since done; but Chalvey was too narrow a 
sphere for his abilities, and ou the lapse of the Slough nursery 
he removed there, and it is with it that his name will be for ever 
identified. Here his collections of florist’s flowers were established 
in such quarters as florist's flowers never were in before. For 
many years the celebrated strains of Show Pelargoniums of Mr. 
Hoyle of Reading and Mr. Foster of Clewer were distributed 
from here The collection of Dahlias was only rivalled by that 
of his old friend, John Keynes of Salisbury. When John Edwards 
gave up his Auriculas they were transferred to Slough, and 
Mr. Turner entered on their cultivation with his usual zeal and 
success, and the Slough collection is still the only nurseryman’s 
in the south of England of any account. When Mr. Groom of 
Walworth’s Tulips were sold, Mr. Turner bought them, loving 
them for their own sakes, and hoping doubtless to revive a love 
for them. His Tulip tent was for years a grand sight, but he 
preached in the wilderness No taste revived, and at last he 
gave them up, saying it would pay better to grow Lettuces. 
When the taste for the Rose so rapidly strengthened, Mr. Turner 
entered keenly into it. The soil at Slough was suitable, and he 
soon made his mark as an exhibitor, and held his place. To 
Slough, too, came most of our successful raisers of novelties. 
There Mr. Fellowes brought his Dahlias and Picotees ; the late 
Charles Perry, who was one of Mr. Turner’s firmest friends, his 
Verbenas, and Dr. Maclean his Peas. From Slough emanated also 
some of the best of our garden fruits—Dr. Hogg amongst Straw¬ 
berries, and Cox’s Orange Pippin amongst Apples. Best of All 
Pea, Schoolmaster Potato, &c., all came from Slough. Mr. 
Turner was careful as to what he let out, and when he certified 
that a thing was good there was very little doubt in anyone’s 
mind about it. As to the nursery itself, everyone who has visited 
it knows that it is the very model of taste, neatness, and order. 
And one thing, I think, greatly tended to his success. Like the 
late Lord Beaconsfield, he was a eood judge of men, and when he 
selected those who were to work with him, like him, he placed 
implicit confidence in them; they remained with him, took as 
much pride in the nursery as he did, and are many of them there 
to mourn his loss. 
As an exhibitor he was, I think, unequalled. I do not mean 
to say that there may not have been many who showed as well 
in the very various departments as he did, but I never me 
