August 21, 1890. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
153 
'winter, when young and vigorous seedlings are ready to take their 
place with the first flush of spring that comes with the lengthening 
•days. 
Seed of P. obconica may be sown almost at any time of the 
year, the main points in its culture being free growth, ordinary 
warmth and plenty of moisture, with reasonable shade in hot 
weather and abundance of air. New seed quickly germinates, and 
the seedlings grow vigorously, but old seed of this Primula, like 
that of others, is slow in germinating, and the plants produced are 
necessarily somewhat sluggish without the help of some brisk moist 
heat. Seed sown now would produce plants ready to bloom next 
•spring. . P. obconica does not wait until it attains a certain size 
before it blooms, but so soon as the plant becomes strong enough, 
and is producing fresh new leaves and abundance of fibrous roots, 
it throws up its flowering stems, though not of course so freely as 
when it attains to a larger size. 
Four, five, and six-inch pots are suitable sizes in which to flower 
this Primula, and the compost used should be rich, free, and open. 
Loam, leaf soil, decayed cow manure, sand, and charcoal will form 
a good mixture for potting at all stages of growth. Seedlings at 
'their first transplanting may be placed in pans instead of pots, and 
if not pricked out too thickly they can be lifted, when large enough, 
with a sufficient quantity of roots to be at once placed in 4 and 
-5-inch. pots. It all depends then on the wish of the cultivator 
whether they are further potted or not. Those in 4-inch pots 
may be moved to G-inch pots when they are ready, but plants in 
5-inch pots make very handy flowering specimens suitable for 
moving into rooms or windows for decoration. Large plants are 
not desirable, but those with leaves overhanging the pot sides, and 
forming a bold and effective base from which the numerous spikes 
of creamy and pinky white flowers rise, are much to be preferred. 
This Primula is a free surface rooter, and when potting, the plant 
may be kept moderately low so as to admit of a few rich top- 
dressings, which will serve to encourage the rapid production of 
these roots, benefiting and strengthening the plant, and rendering 
it more floriferous The removal, too, of seed pods and decayed 
flowers will materially help the prolongation of its flowering, as 
well as keeping the plant in a thoroughly creditable condition. 
Should the plants at any time get very dry, and an ordinary supply 
ef water is not sufficient to moisten the thirsty ball of roots, 
immerse the pot over its rim in water for half an hour. Apply 
liquid manure only when the soil is in a moist state, though cer¬ 
tainly not when very wet or sticky. The healthiest plants and 
those with the deepest green leaves are grown in a partially shaded 
position in a greenhouse. Too much sun takes away the rich green 
of the leaves, and causes moisture to evaporate from the soil too 
quickly, thereby robbing the plant of a considerable amount of 
support. 
Seed may be saved from one or two plants specially reserved 
for the purpose, as it is well not to encourage a great number of 
flower spikes on plants selected for this purpose. The pollen 
should be collected from the ripe anthers of flowers on other 
plants with a camel’s hair brush, and conveyed to the stigmas of 
those which are intended for seed bearing, and when sufficient 
pods are set and swelling remove all flowers as fast as they appear. 
By this means good, well-developed seed will be obtained, which 
when ripe and sown within a reasonable time afterwards will 
quickly germinate and make fine plants. Division of the roots 
may also be resorted to to increase the stock, and in the spring 
and early summer in a moist, warm atmosphere, pieces with a 
small quantity of roots attached soon grow into good plants, but 
the flowers are often smaller and sometimes less freely produced 
than in plants raised from good seed. Gardeners, as a rule, prefer 
the latter, and, as I think, the best method of keeping up a 
stock. 
Primula obconica is said to be by various persons somewhat 
of a poisonous nature. The handling and touching of the leaves 
have caused, it is alleged, a very unpleasant irritability of the 
skin on the hands and arms, and a kind of rash has appeared, 
which in some cases has proved very troublesome. I have never 
experienced anything of the kind, nor do I know anyone who 
has. If it is proved by further knowledge to be possessed of 
this unpleasant quality, no doubt a considerable amount of the 
popularity this plant has now enjoyed for some years will wax 
and wane. If it be true, however, it may not affect everybody 
alike, and many may be proof against it altogether.—E. D. S. 
LEICESTER CONFERENCE PAPER. 
PRUNING IN COMMERCIAL FRUIT CULTURE. 
1$Y MB. G. BUNYABB. 
The Object of Pruning. —This operation is designed to assist 
Nature in the production of superior fruit. Reducing the quantity 
of fruiting spurs and excess branches, enables the tree to concen¬ 
trate its vital energy on a fewer number of buds to their better 
individual development. Further than this, a good pruner leaves 
all those buds in the best possible position to catch the sun and 
air with a view of obtaining not only increased size in the fruit, 
but to ensure that high colour which such exposure alone can pro¬ 
duce. All growers are aware that the fruit from the inside of 
the tree is not so highly developed or coloured as that from the 
outside. Thus a careful man will operate with a view to create 
a natural balance between roots and top, so that each tree can pro¬ 
duce a crop yearly, and not, as when left alone, a heavy crop every 
other year, which makes it require a year’s rest to recover itself. I 
recollect a story told that the owner of a small garden had two 
large standard Apples that produced a heavy crop every other year, 
and my grandfather advised him to cut off the blossom from one at 
flowering time. This brought them so that he had a crop every 
year. This exhaustion of the tree by an over-crop is emphasised 
by the fact that most early fruits (whether Apples, Pears, or 
Plums) are as a rule more regular bearers than later kinds, because 
the tree has time to recover its lost power between the gathering 
of the crop and the fall of the leaf, when Nature’s repose comes on. 
Evidently, therefore, it is on these lines that “ rational pruning ” 
should be done. 
In dealing with this subject from a trade point of view we 
are naturally at once met with the cost of the operation, and it 
is here that we are at a disadvantage compared with the cheap 
labour of the continent; but I would suggest that growers should 
teach their sons to look after this, which is after all a most interesting 
operation, and I am sure they would enjoy it as I did looking 
after our orchard some years ago. The next point is—“ How to 
go to work.” I can remind you that in dealing with some fruits 
you are always on the right track as cultivators, but I want to see 
the system extended. Take, for example, your Red Currants and 
Gooseberries after pruning. A novice would at once say you had 
spoiled them entirely, whereas you know by experience that your 
berries are twice as large as when the trees are unpruned, and your 
Currants, too, are larger in the berry and longer in the bunch, 
while, in some cases, you summer-prune as well to let in the sun 
to ripen the wood. If this pays in the case of the small soft fruits 
it will also pay in the case of the harder “ top” fruit, and you all 
know too well that it is the best samples from reputed growers 
which command the highest price, under-sized fruits and spotted 
samples really bring down the value of the entire crop. In a warm 
summer your fruit would be super-excellent, and in a wet or cold 
one, what you produced would be much finer and clearer than from 
neglected trees. Again, in the case of Raspberries, you cut olE 
2 to 4 feet of the canes, certainly to save sticking on the one hand, 
but you also know that you get much larger berries, and jam 
makers do not like Raspberries that are all seeds, as they would be 
if left uncut. In old neglected gardens the berries are not one- 
fourth the size of properly headed-back plantations. The most 
forcible example of the value of pruning is afforded by the Cob 
Nut. As pruned in Kent the tree appears a miserable object after 
the cutter has done his work, but as the result proves, we get a 
better crop, and the Nuts are far larger than those on trees not 
pruned ; in fact, if allowed to grow as they like, the Nuts are but 
a trifle larger than those called Barcelonas in the shops. 
Again, why is wall fruit so much finer than that from the 
open ? Because such trees must be pruned to keep them in posi¬ 
tion, and moreover the spurs are always (in properly cared-for 
gardens) thinned out, and naturally all face one way to catch the 
sun, and have the additional benefit of the radiation of heat from 
the wall to assist in the ripening of the wood. 
Having given you, perhaps, too much theory, I will now proceed 
to indicate how i would recommend the pruning to be done on 
young trees, say standards or half-standards. In planting, all that 
is nece sary is to cut off any injured roots, and then to shorten 
back slightly the long anchor-like roots, taking care to cut in 
closely the tap root, or those roots that have a distinctly down¬ 
ward tendency. The tree should then have its head examined, the 
planter holding it so that he can, as it were, look it in the face on a 
line with the trunk. He will then see at a glance if there are more 
shoots than are required to form a symmetrical head, by preference 
three, five, or seven shoots placed at equal distances, like the spokes 
of a wheel. I mean if we can get seven, so much the better, but it 
is, for the purpose of a foundation, preferable to have even three 
at a regular distance between each other, than to have four or five, 
the balance of which is uneven. All surplus shoots can be cut 
clean away, and the rest not cut or tipped in any way. The following 
winter (in February by preference, avoiding frosty weather) this head 
is to be cut back rather severely, say leaving five or six eyes at the 
base, but cutting so that there is one bud left pointing outwards at 
the extremity of the cut. From this cutting a mass of shoots will 
issue, and in July the pruner should go over his trees and cut back 
