December 22, 1881 .] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 569 
that good Pears can be produced all over these islands from trees 
the roots of which are allowed to run in cold clay or cankering 
gravel. Here and there, especially in favoured spots, conditions 
favourable enough may be found, but few are so favoured.” This 
reply your correspondent does not seem to have noticed. 
My lot never having been to work in orchards I will not pre¬ 
sume to understand their usual management ; but if root-pruning 
and root-lifting are unknown among fruit-farmers I do not hesitate 
to say that, even on the best of soils and in the best of climates, 
fruit-farming is capable of improvement, for care of roots is of 
more importance than care of branches. But, more important 
still, I will venture to say from my own experience that it is only 
favourable soils that command £5 an acre, and that when such 
land at that price affords profit it must be good. Orchards, 
generally speaking, are confined to certain districts known to be 
favourable, and in such districts great results are obtained with 
next to no skill. Gardens, on the other hand, are placed any¬ 
where. The soil may be quite unfit for further culture and the 
climate bad, but the gardener is expected to furnish fruit and 
vegetables from it. Even the best skill may fail under such cir¬ 
cumstances if the example of the plant-and-let-grow plan as 
advocated is followed. Perhaps your correspondent has never 
had serious difficulties to contend with, and as yet he has said 
nothing to justify us in thinking that he merely plants his trees, 
and, beyond severing a tap root occasionally, attends to the tops, 
and reaps first-rate results. His book is not yet emptied, however, 
and it is possible he may have the best part of it in store for us. 
In our native county there is a small district almost wholly 
occupied by orchards, the people having found that all kinds of 
fruit thrive with no attention. In no other district do Pears 
attain the size or quality of the Pears in that spot under natural 
conditions. On such a soil (it is heavy gritty loam from decayed 
trap to an unknown depth) no preparation of borders would be 
necessary, and such trees as advocated by “John Bull ” would 
be satisfactory to everyone concerned. In the garden where the 
first three years of our gardening career were spent the soil was of 
a very different kind. A better stocked garden as far as fruit 
trees went we never saw, and the old gardener was one after 
“John Bull’s” own heart. Just such trees as he admires 
covered the walls, but great numbers were prone to produce wood 
rather than fruit. In good seasons immense crops were produced, 
but between their produce and that of the orchard district the 
difference was great. They w r ere not over half the size and the 
quality was not equal, neither did they fruit year by year with 
the same regularity. The finer kinds were scabbed and often 
cracked and inferior. The roots of the former were in healthy 
material, ours in poor sand. 
Part of the wall was much swayed, and that portion was 
covered with young trees not nearly full grown. It was deter¬ 
mined to rebuild the wall, and to accomplish this the trees had to 
be lifted. This was entrusted to me. Strict orders were given us 
to lift the trees with balls ; but the roots were clean and straight, 
and we could not get an ounce of earth with them. We trans¬ 
planted them temporarily against another wall. All lived, and 
when one year after they were transplanted against the new wall 
the fibreless roots had become magnificent wigs ; but the growth 
of the branches was effectually checked. The following year the 
newly planted trees produced more and finer fruit than I believe 
was ever produced from an equal space in that garden before. 
On revisiting the garden some years afterwards I was assured 
that the trees referred to were the most satisfactory on the 
place. That fine trees bearing fine crops of first-class fruit could 
be produced by making expensive borders I quite admit, aod such 
was the practice in that country fifty years ago. Without the 
borders such results could not be obtained. If the tree must be 
produced, then, also, so must the borders. Now we think the 
borders quite unnecessary, for by careful lifting and root-pruning 
the best results may be produced on even bad subsoils ; but 
lifting and root-pruning in inferior soils means smaller trees, 
which will cover the walls equally well if planted closer : and 
medium trees would be equal at least, at very much less labour 
and much less waiting, than larger trees necessitating the making 
of wide deep borders. 
Axe-pruning we know little about, and should hesitate to sever 
large down-going roots for fear that decay might be induced, 
which might creep up and kill the trees. Large trees we have 
assisted to improve by lifting first one half of the roots one year 
and the other the year following ; but again we say that the 
labour required in such cases is much greater than is expended in 
keeping the roots of properly trained medium trees out of the 
subsoil. Still, were we to find ourselves in charge of trees barren 
or producing inferior fruit by reason of the roots going into bad 
or cold soil we should certainly lift the roots ; and if such trees 
turned out bad sorts, still we would not destroy them if they were 
healthy, but cut back every branch and crown-graft them with 
sorts known to be good and suitable for the locality. Many bad 
sorts have we thus replaced. 
We have helped to cultivate trees successfully when others let 
alone would not live even. Not many years ago we had a lesson 
on a soil very similar to that of the London basin. These trees 
grew well with no trouble, and produced excellent results. On 
similar soil the results were exactly opposite. This may look 
strange until we add that the garden is five hundred miles further 
north. The matter of climate alone made the difference. There 
we helped to plant a number of tiees in prepared soil. So long 
as the roots kept in the prepared soil the fruit was very fine and 
never failed to ripen. When the roots reached the cold undersoil 
the effect was exactly as if the climate had changed much for the 
worse. What would “John Bull” do in such a case? The 
gardener in charge lifted all the roots and ihus restored the trees 
to their former fertility, but the operation checked the growth 
to begin with, and the heavy crops afterwards. Part of the more 
easily managed—that is, smaller—trees on the walls were similarly 
treated with like results. Others there are “ splendid and splen¬ 
didly trained,” which bear well in alternate years, but the fruit 
is not good in ordinary seasons ; and in bad years—and they have 
occurred rather too frequently in that locality lately—the fruit is 
very inferior and many kinds fail to ripen fruit at all. 
I hope I have now made clear why I prefer small to large trees, 
and why I advise others to “ seriously consider ” what they are 
doing. I said before that much more labour was necessary to 
produce a given amount of fruit from a given space of wall, 
and though the terms I used were exaggerated (I confess that), - 
my experience tells me that that is so. On a healthy soil and in 
a good climate perhaps I might be inclined to raise such monu¬ 
ments to my name as “John Bull” admires, but hitherto I 
have not been favoured with the necessary conditions. In what 
latitude does your correspondent practise ? He might give us a 
hint, for surely he will go on drawing upon his “ book,” now that 
he has begun. Although I have used w T ords I should not have 
used, for which my apologies are due to “John Bull,” his 
object, I am sure, is to benefit his readers as mine is, and no one 
will read what he has to say with greater pleasure than will— 
A. H. H. 
PLANT-COLLECTING IN TROPICAL COUNTRIES. 
As, doubtless, many of your readers who fully appreciate the 
many beautiful plants annually sent out by the leading nursery¬ 
men have but faint ideas of the dangers incurred in collecting 
them, I give the following brief indication of the course pursued 
by men so engaged, the substance of which I have gathered from 
conversation with many travellers in the tropics. 
Having received his instructions as to the chief objects of his 
search, and the districts where they are most likely to be found, the 
collector proceeds to the port nearest to his destination and thence 
to the most convenient town as a basis for his operations. After a 
few days he. is well on the road, and seeks to engage some assist¬ 
ance m the shape of a boy, this boy being often nearly as old as 
himself. After the promise of a few dollars the boy is engaged, 
or as many assistants or boys as the collector requires, and start, 
each man carrying his own knapsack. In a short time they are 
all busily engaged, provided everything is favourable, tearing the 
plants from the trees or rocks, and making some preparation to 
keep them alive till they have collected sufficient to form one 
consignment to be taken down to the seaport and packed ready 
for shipment. All this may appear a charming life to those 
uninitiated, and so it is ; but this, of course, is the brightest part 
of it. The drawbacks are tenfold compared with the pleasures. 
The climate is perhaps the most dangerous of all to any European, 
and what a collector suffers from most is fever. This is brought 
on to a very great extent by exposure. It often occurs that when 
a collector is exploring a wild out-of-the-way district that he is 
too far away to go even to the nearest house or hut to sleep, con¬ 
sequently he has to construct a hut himself, and thatch it with 
leaves to keep out the wet. It is when a collector is smitten with 
fever that he finds himself in an awkward position. He then has 
to doctor himself, his chief medicine in case of fever being sul¬ 
phate of quinine. I was informed by a collector not long since 
that on more than one occasion he would willingly have given his 
twelve months’ salary to have been free from fever and back home 
again. Generally speaking, they live very hard, too, when they 
are travelling ; their staple food is boiled rice, with any other 
delicacies they are fortunate enough to obtain. Wild animals 
and poisonous reptiles are frequently met with, to say nothing of 
the annoyance of monkeys, croaking frogs, ants, and other things 
