ctober t, 189a J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
285 
TjVTATURALLY the desire of owners and cultivators of fruit 
.IN trees is to see them laden with fruit. To the great majority 
this pleasure is denied this year, but there are exceptions. Here and 
there trees may he seen very much overladen with Apples, and 
Lave, in consequence, made little or no growth beyond the produc¬ 
tion of small leaves. Such examples are, however, exceptional, and, 
as a rule, fruit trees that are not too old or exhausted have made 
unusually free growth, while the young and inherently vigorous 
Lave, to use a familiar simile, grown like Willows. It is the same 
with trees generally which are systematically allowed to make all 
the growth that can be forced by unrestricted roots in the summer 
for cutting out in winter in the process of what is known as prun¬ 
ing. A great deal of this kind of pruning has been done in the 
past, and will probably be done in the future, the direct result 
being, as it always has been, must be, and will be, the prevention 
of fruit. 
A few years ago the readers of a popular newspaper were 
satiated with advice from correspondents on the subject of “ What 
to do with our boys ?” Whether they did any better with, or for, 
the boys in consequence of the discussion is perhaps a moot ques¬ 
tion, for sometimes good advice is given which by one section of the 
•community cannot be followed, while those who might profit by it 
fail to do so for various reasons, such as lethargy, stupidity, incre¬ 
dulity, and assumed superiority. That, however, is not the fault of 
those who strive to be useful, and it may be fairly presumed that 
there are a few who are apt in turning to account published hints 
and suggestions that are applicable in their case. A question of 
interest to many at the present time who are endeavouring to grow 
fruit is almost a counterpart of the boy question — namely, 
* l What are we to do with our trees ?” In many, if not in most, 
cases that question would probably not be very difficult to answer 
if the exact condition of the trees could be made clear to an 
experienced cultivator, together with the surrounding influences, 
and the treatment to which the trees had been subjected. With 
this information before them, there are plenty of men who could 
form a very good opinion of what it would be desirable to do 
to render the trees as satisfactory as seasons and circumstances 
permit. 
No one who is admitted to possess a fair knowledge of fruit 
culture needs to travel far, or visit many gardens and orchards, 
before being driven to the conclusion that by far too many persons 
who have trees do not know what to do with them. A certain 
number of these persons do nothing, and they occasionally succeed 
quite as well as do others who are always doing something, but 
often doing wrongly. Intelligent readers of the gardening papers 
to whom practical men contribute have learned much during recent 
years on the management of fruit trees, and improvement is 
manifest in many gardens ; but there are thousands of trees in the 
care of persons who either do not read, or skim the papers without 
thinking, that are a disgrace to a civilised nation—crowded, filthy, 
moss-encrusted, and starved on the one hand, or young, vigorous, 
and clipped in like Privet bushes on the other. They are alike 
pitiable to see. The former may or may not crowd themselves 
with blossom and worthless fruit, and the latter grow with 
unwonted vigour for the knife or shears in autumn to put them 
into shape Of fruit these latter kind of trees bear little or none, 
No. 53G,—Yol. XXI., Third Series. 
but the pruner never dreams of that being his fault. If asked 
why they do not bear he will perhaps tell you the sorts are wrong, 
the soil bad, or that some stupid man did not plant them right at 
first. There seems no end to the ingenuity of a man who fails in 
covering the cause of his failure, and it is deplorable to observe 
how many either fail in fruit-growing or only succeed in having 
good crops by chance. 
There comes a time in the life of a tree when it is practically 
beyond renovation. It has had its day and done its duty as best it 
could under the circumstances, but there are vast numbers of trees 
that become practically useless too soon because they have been 
either neglected or mismanaged. The present is the time to afford 
aid to more or less exhausted fruit trees, the time also to assist 
effectively others which are not exhausted. Let us take a few 
typical examples, and see what is best to be done with them. There is 
not the slightest necessity to draw on the imagination for such 
trees, for they exist in every county, and in many orchards and 
gardens in each. 
Here is a plantation of very old trees. The most ancient of 
them were planted at some remote period by somebody’s grand¬ 
father, of whose pomological work there is no record. In the 
course of time one here and there, and now and then, has either 
died or been blown down, and another has been “ stuck in ” to fill 
the blank created. This became old before its time, as trees are apt 
to do under such circumstances. Without any doubt the Anglo- 
Saxons are an intensely conservative people, and, in rural districts 
especially, appear loth to depart from the habits and customs of 
their forefathers in the provision of fruit. Once an orchard 
always an orchard, would appear to be the unwritten law that has 
governed the actions of men through many generations, if not 
centuries ; and the old custom of filling up blanks in old Apple 
orchards with young Apple trees is still in force in many localities. 
It is utterly bad, but we are bound to recognise its existence, much 
as the fact is to be deplored. If it is necessary—or, whether neces¬ 
sary or not, thought desirable—to continue a fruit plantation on a 
site which has become historical, let the blanks in an ancient Apple 
orchard be filled up with Plums, and in a Plum orchard with 
Apples, and a much better return may be expected, and will be 
realised, than if the ancient custom of filling up the ground with 
the same kinds of fruits which have grown and died thereon from 
time immemorial. Now, while the leaves, if not fruit, are still on 
the trees in old orchards, is the time for a critical examination, 
because at no other time is it possible to arrive at such a correct 
decision as to which of the trees should be marked for removal and 
which for renovation. 
Many fruit trees, which if left alone, can only be regarded as 
cumberers of the ground in the future, may be made to yield use¬ 
fully by judiciously pruning, cleansing and manuring till young 
trees, planted on a fresh and suitable site, produce what only 
young trees and good soil can produce—a full supply of superior 
fruit. When old trees have arrived at a state of decrepitude that 
they cannot without aid of the nature indicated be serviceable, 
young trees should always be planted, not among the old, but 
apart from them, for it is evident that the end of the former is 
near, and not until the young trees have arrived at a profitable 
bearing state should the old be wholly destroyed where a continuous 
supply of, we will say Apples, is essential. More than one young 
gardener has erred, and suffered for his error, by too hastily up¬ 
rooting old fruit trees, and thus creating a blank in the supply of 
fruit, which has been more than inconvenient, pending the time 
that the young trees he may have planted of the best varieties 
have become substantially productive. The safe course to pursue 
is to make the best of the old trees for a time, and it is wonderful 
how many can be improved by the thoughtful use of the saw and 
knife now, with the application of the scraper and lime for 
cleansing the branches, and the generous use of strong liquid 
manure to the roots at any convenient time in winter or early 
No. 2192.—Yol. LXXXIII., Old Series. 
