JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 5, 1881. ] 
353 
and conclusive manner the influence of summer-pinching in pro¬ 
moting fruitfulness. But the fertility of the several forms of trees 
referred to is not wholly due to any manipulative process, as 
undoubtedly the stocks on which the trees are grafted have con¬ 
tributed of their influence, and this is great. 
The various stocks are submitted to the fullest and fairest 
possible trial. This is the time of year for observing the results, 
as the flowers are the real test of fertility. An accidental occur¬ 
rence may prevent a tree bearing fruit even after its fruit-bearing 
capacity has been proved by its blossom. There are stocks that 
have never been worked nor pruned. All are of the same age, 
but of different sizes and degrees of fruitfulness. The free or 
Crab stocks are fruitless, the different varieties of Paradise stocks 
showing their distinct features of habit and fertility. The French 
Paradise has proved its character by dying ; when not grafted it 
cannot live long, but when an Apple is worked on it the tree lives 
for at least a number of years, and fruits heavily—clear evidence 
of the scion influencing the stock. All these stocks are also 
grafted with the same variety of Apple—Blenheim Pippin—which 
is not a precocious bearer nor of close bush or pyramidal growth ; 
yet the precise characteristics of the several stocks both as to 
habit and fertility are clearly pourtrayed in the trees, affording 
the most striking evidence of the influence of the stock over the 
scion. 
It is not necessary to detail the condition of all the stocks, as 
four' of them will be sufficient for all practical purposes — the 
French Paradise, the Doucin, the Broad-leaved Paradise, and 
the Crab. The first is the dwarfest and the most precocious of 
all, and for purposes of comparison its height may be given as 
3 feet, every part of the trees being laden with flowers ; the 
second, the Doucin, is a foot or more higher, proportionally 
stronger, and bearing about the same number of flowers more 
thinly disposed ; the third, the Broad-leaved Paradise, is over 
5 feet high, with, in comparison, few flowers, yet sufficient for a 
good crop of fruit ; the fourth, the Crab, is over 6 feet high, strong 
and not producing one flower—the Apple, as before stated, being 
in every instance the Blenheim Pippin, There are two trees 
representing each stock, and each is an exact counterpart of the 
other. 
If space permitted some practical lessons might be deduced 
from this instructive and fairly conducted and valuable experi¬ 
ment ; but it can only be briefly and broadly stated that if an 
acre of Apple trees were planted on either of the first three 
stocks according to their special adaptations to the soil, and 
another acre of trees on the Crab stock were planted, and a series 
of good fruit years were to follow, the produce of the former—the 
profits—would buy the land before the other would pay the rent ; 
but estimating their relative values over a period of a quarter of 
a century the very dwarf stocks would probably be nowhere, 
although even under this test it is highly probable that the freer 
growing but not rampant Broad-leaved Paradise would be as 
profitable as the Crab. But the stock trials do not end with the 
examples quoted. There are rows of young trees on the Paradise 
and Doucin stocks, a dozen or more of several varieties of Apples 
being worked respectively on the two stocks. The difference is 
most marked and perceptible at a glance, the Doucin being in 
every instance the stronger ; while if the tedious process were gone 
through of counting the thousands of flowers on these two-year- 
old trees that have never been pruned, the difference in all pro¬ 
bability would be very slight. 
The Pear trees on different stocks are similarly instructive. 
A number of Winter Nelis have been growing for years on all 
sorts of stocks that could be utilised. Whether the trees have 
been pruned or not the results are the same. Those on the Pear 
are either barren or sparse of blossom, those on the Quince 
crowded ; some very fine trees worked on Cratsegus coccinea 
combine strength with fertility, but a number on other “fancy ” 
stocks are of no practical utility. 
It has been said that all the forms of growing fruit trees are 
adopted at Chiswick. That, however, is not quite accurate, and 
Mr. Barron might do worse than give an object lesson showing 
the manner in which so many trees are rendered fruitless by 
injudicious management and incorrect pruning. He might plant 
strong trees on free-growing stocks, prune them severely for a 
few years until a large number of branches were struggling with 
each other for light ; allow these branches to grow during the 
summer and cut them off in the winter, not thinning them too 
much ; let the roots alone, so that they might be able to incite 
and support luxuriant growths another year; these to continue 
growing all the summer and cut off in winter as usual, and so on 
from year to year ; thus showing, as was once stated in this 
Journal, a fine example of growing flower stakes instead of pro¬ 
ducing fruit. This is the way in which too many trees are treated, 
and disappointment engendered. A system of fruit culture is 
then denounced because of the injudicious manner in which it 
was carried out. With a little labour well and intelligently 
applied the same trees might have been fruitful—a source of 
pride and profit to the owner during favourable seasons for fruit. 
At Chiswick the right plan is shown, and it would be seen, if 
possible, to greater advantage if the wrong were represented in 
juxtaposition. Far better is it for those who have not the neces¬ 
sary time nor skill for bestowing the proper attention on the trees 
to simply thin out these branches and allow them to extend, and 
some Pears, but not all, will form natural fruit spurs, handsome 
pyramids, and valuable crops of fruit. Apples similarly managed 
will not form pyramids, but fruitful bushes or bush trees, more or 
less spreading according to the habit of the variety ; but these 
trees are not fit for gardens, while hundreds of specimens at 
Chiswick are admirably adapted for this purpose. 
Besides the Pear blossom in the garden that is so profuse and 
fine, there is an excellent show of Plum and Cherry blossom, and 
the Apple trees will shortly be as richly laden as the Pears. The 
blossom being a fortnight later than the average period of expan¬ 
sion, and a month later than in early years, and not yet blackened 
at the core, affords reasonable ground for hope that fruit will 
follow ; but unfortunately violent hailstorms and severe frosts 
are always liable to occur during the month of May and bring 
destruction in their train. Let us hope it will not be so this year, 
for a golden harvest would be a blessing to all. 
There is much more that is noteworthy in the gardens, but all 
that can be done at present is to advise all who have the means of 
doing so, that desire to see the beauty of Nature combined with 
the skill of man, to pay a visit to “ Chiswick in May,” and the 
sooner the better. 
PROVINCIAL FOLK LORE. 
Some time ago you were obliging enough to review in these 
columns a little book of mine entitled “ Provincial Folk Lore.” 
I inserted your remarks in a second edition. These have been 
lately re-reviewed in the January number of the “ Westminster 
Review ” for 1881. As this is a famous year for both Cherry and 
Plum tree blossom it may be interesting to reproduce what is said, 
and may possibly draw forth some further elucidations. “ The 
author misses his way in his remarks on the familiar south-country 
rhyme— 
“ A Cherry year 
A merry year; 
A Plum year 
A dumb year.” 
This, we are told on the authority of a writer in the Journal of 
Horticulture , means that ‘ Cherries are never plentiful except 
when their blossoms have a genial spring and summer, and that 
an abundance of Plums carries an increase in the death rate.’ 
Now ‘ this interesting explanation,’ as the author calls it, is like 
the definition of a crab by the French scientific world, utterly 
wrong in every particular. The word 1 merry ’ has nothing what¬ 
ever to do with our adjective so spelt, but is connected with the 
French Merise , and is a common provincialism throughout the 
south-west of England for the wild Cherry (Prunus avium). In 
Hampshire ‘ Merry Feasts ’ are still held. The learned authors 
of ‘English Plant Names’ further remark that there are various 
kinds of ‘Merries’ known as red, black, and white, in different 
parts of England. The word ‘ dumb ’ has also nothing to do with 
the adjective so spelt, but is a corruption of Damson (Prunus 
communis). The meaning of the rhyme now becomes apparent. 
It simply says that a good year for Cherries is also a good year 
for ‘ Merries ;’ and that a good year for Plums (always spelt 
‘ plumb’ by the rustic of the west of England, and so making a 
purer rhyme) is also a good year for Damsons—that, in short, the 
year which is favourable to cultivated is also favourable to wild 
fruit.” 
The wind-up of this critique, I humbly opine, is hardly equal to 
the first part. It leaves me in the state of mind described after 
certain law pleadings— 
“ Mr. Parker 
Made that darker 
Which was dark enough without.” 
Here my memory fails, but I can supply the ending— 
« And the Chancellor said, I doubt.” 
—Alan Cheales. 
Yucca aloifolia vaeiegata.— I recently noticed a remark¬ 
ably healthy specimen of this fine decorative plant in the inter¬ 
mediate house at Oakville near this town. Although introduced 
to this country more than a century since, and grown at the 
Glasnevin and College Botanic Gardens, Dublin, it is too seldom 
