August 19, 1886. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
158 
April than others of the same kind, size, and age in the same row did that 
were not disturbed. I think I said what I meant on page 12, and am 
sure I meant what I said. For the special information of my incredulous 
opponent I may explain that “ from November to the following April ” 
means an interval of four months. I have nothing to alter or withdraw 
from that or any of the paragraphs on the pages quoted, for on a careful 
perusal of them I am convinced that everything there advanced is strictly 
accurate. 
By far the most important sentence in those paragraphs is that in which 
the principle is embodied of a “ fruit bud being an arrested wood bud and 
nothing else.” Mr. Abbey “ really cannot accept that definition.” So be 
it : but I mean to stand by it all the same ; and I have the satisfaction to 
feel that I may be the humble agent in educating him on a point of great 
interest and of considerable moment in vegetable physiology. After he 
has examined the economy of vegetation more closely he will, 1 believe, 
have to recGgnise what he fails to see now, otherwise he will occupy the 
conspicuous position of standing alone in opposition to most if not all the 
scientific pomologists in Europe. 
I obseeve that some recorded observations of Dr. Hogg are cited as 
if against me. They are not in conflict with any opinions I have ex¬ 
pressed, nor views that I hold, but, on the contrary, are in strict harmony 
with what I have written. What is more, and I ask for particular atten¬ 
tion to the point, I venture to opine that what my respected opponent 
cannot recognise is the principle and foundation on which the Doctor’s 
argument rests. Remove that foundation, and the pregnant sentence 
quoted on page 111 would lose its force. There may possibly be other 
readers who do not fully comprehend that a fruit bud is an arrested wood 
hud. Let them think out the subject well, and they will arrive at the con¬ 
clusion indicated ; and if they make that fact the basis of their practice 
they will see their way clearer as growers of fruit than they can possibly 
do otherwise. 
I AM asked, “ What arrests growth in Nature causing a cessation of 
extension ?” I answer the question in one word—“ age.” There is no 
doubt about that, as thousands of young fruit trees prove after they pass 
the meridian of vigour. They first grow vigorously if in good soil, then 
less and less so until they bristle with fruit buds. My clever critic can 
play on the word metamorphosis as he likes, but there is the change from 
wood buds to fruit buds for all that, as the result of arrested growth ; and 
if we arrest growth artificially the change is effected the sooner. I say it 
can be arrested in the autumn, and the change commences at once, though 
it may not be so apparent as by a check given in summer. The practical 
lesson derivable from the above scientific fact is this :—If the growth of 
your trees must be restricted to keep them within prescribed bounds cut 
the roots also, or you will have few blossom buds, but many wood buds. 
The check, the arresting of growth, causes the change. Let the check 
given be what may be termed violent, and the trees will make scarcely any 
growth, but practically all the buds will become blossom buds. Whethe 
they are fertile or sterile obviously does not invalidate the change that unr 
doubtedly takes place in the character of the buds. 
I ought not to overlook an observation or two in the great article that 
was intended to overwhelm me. In the last few lines of the sixth para¬ 
graph (page 111) the author says a practised eye can tell the character of 
“ nine out of ten buds” when the leaves fall; if not, “ the observer is good 
for nothing.” Yet in the next paragraph he admits having observed that 
“ many buds ” which he “ thought were wood buds ” have “ developed 
blossoms in spring.” Does he still stand by his “ good for nothing ” 
verdict ? If Mr. Abbey cannot accept the proposition, or rather fact, that 
he has practically admitted yet strongly controverted, he must accept the 
alternative and show what a fruit bud really is. I conclude for the present 
as I began, by repeating that a fruit bud is, in my opinion, “ an arrested 
wood bud and nothing else.” 
In reference to the question of wood ripening, I desire it to he 
distinctly understood that I do not wish to arrange my thoughts in a 
form for confuting my critic. With very much that he has said I agree 
fully. I am also quite willing to admit that he is not very likely to make 
mistakes in pruning for a definite object. It is in the hope that others 
less experienced may form clearer conceptions on the subject that I 
entered on its discussion. The importance of “hard ripe wood” has 
been dinned into the ears of the multitude so loudly and persistently that 
hundreds of persons have prevented vastly more fruit forming on their 
trees than they have induced, and this by cutting back to “hard ripe 
wood.” Waggonloads of the best and most fruitful portions have been 
removed from trees under the assumption that it was not “ ripe.” A good 
deal of wood that has not a hard and brown appearance is hardier and 
riper than it looks. I have seen all the “hard” portions of Rose trees 
killed during extreme frost, the only parts surviving being the strong, 
green, and apparently “soft” growths which the orthodox gardener 
would call “unripe,” and I remember Mr. Peach writing a forcible 
article on this phenomenon ; and provided these growths are made in a 
position where the leaves develops under the direct influence of light, 
the strong green-locking growths in due time give the finest flowers. 
The great desideratum is stout perfect foliage. It cannot be perfect if 
crowded amid a mass of shoots to the exclusion of sun and air. Yet 
that is the condition under which millions of leaves on the lower parts of 
the sheets of crowded fruit trees struggle for existence. The wood is hard 
enough there, but the leaves have assimilated and stored but little nutri¬ 
ent matter, because they were not in a condition to perform their 
functions. They were mere apologies for leaves, small, thin, and nearly 
useless. Those above them are better than they, and have done far more 
work, because they have had the prime essentials of their being—light 
and air—and the wood they have fed is better wood than the older and 
harder below. Yet the best is often ruthlessly cut off, because, forsooth, 
it is not “ hard and ripe.” I assert emphatically, not hastily, but as the 
result of much thought, observation, and at least some practice, that in 
instances innumerable the best bearing wood is cut off Vines, Apples, 
Pears, Plums, Gooseberries—-in fact, from all kinds of fruit trees, and 
the worst is left. I have now given Mr. Abbey a splendid chance to 
display his reasoning powers in proving me wrong if he has a desire to 
do so. 
Disdudding and thinning to prevent crowded branches is a golden 
rule in fruit tree management. If you want fruit buds at the base of 
shoots the leaves there must be perfect leaves, and to that end it may be 
necessary to suppress what is termed breastwood ; but this is commonly 
done two months too late. June is better than August for that work ; but 
where fruit is the main object, the form of trees of secondary importance, 
thinning early and sufficiently is more potent than all the shortening ; for 
with the sun shining between the branches, and consequently on the 
leaves, fruit buds will form on nearly the whole length of the shoots, 
the part the most destitute of natural spurs being the lower, which 
is so “hard and ripe.” These remarks apply to established trees in 
full growth, as young trees newly planted should be pruned rather 
severely. 
If the wood, say, of Apple trees, when the shoots and branches are 
thinly disposed, will not ripen to the extremities, how are we to account 
for practically the whole of the crop of that beautiful Apple, the Cornish 
Gilliflower, being borne quite at the ends of the shoots ? Cut these shoots 
back to hard ripe wood and you have no fruit ; let them alone and you 
have a valuable crop. Plant an acre of that most useful market Apple, 
Small’s Admirable, on the Paradise stock ; let half of these trees be cut 
back to “ hard ripe wood ” systematically in the autumn, and the other 
half not “ cut back ” at all, but branches taken out if needed to prevent 
crowding ; gather and sell all the fruit from the two half acres, keeping 
a separate account of the sums realised from each, and at the end of ten 
years note the difference. The amount, at a low estimate, will be three 
times greater from the naturally grown trees than from those artificially 
“assisted” with the knife. Perhaps it may be advisable to inform Mr. 
Abbey in advance that I am not reasoning from theory, but my remarks 
are founded on experience. I have no objection to growers of fruit pruning 
their trees who know how to prune, but the great majority do not know 
how to prune profitably; and I know just enough about the subject to 
enable me to state that if I were growing a few acres of Apples or Goose¬ 
berries for profit I would not allow any hard-and-ripe-wood fancier to 
mutilate my trees. It would pay me better to pay him a little annuity 
to keep his knife in his pocket. Growers who make the most money by 
fruit culture spend the least in payment of wages for pruning. If I con¬ 
tinue much longer my critical friend will be retorting that I am a “ big 
battaliou ” man ; but my thoughts are directed to a great subject generally 
with the object of setting others thinking, and not specially to contravene 
his arguments ; but anyone is welcome to have a dash at mine. 
I MUST have another brief note on Asparagus. The subject intro¬ 
duced was plain enough at first, but is now nearly obscured by intellec¬ 
tual cobwebs so intertwined that they can neither be very well seen 
through nor brushed away. Oaks, Cabbages, and cotyledons have all 
got entangled together. Perhaps Mr. Abbey forgot that Asparagus does 
not produce a pair of co’yledons in germination, so I am not likely to cut 
below them, at any rate ; but I have cut the small thin growths from 
beds in May and seen others spring up the stronger. And now I will 
upset the verdict he has thought fit to pass on me without waiting for 
evidence. As he gets older, or by the time he has had another twenty 
years’ experience, he will perhaps find that I have a habit of keeping a 
few facts in reserve for contingencies. With comforting self-complacency 
he prides himself, and no doubt justly, on “ results,” while the 
practice of Mr. S. Castle and myself is “only extended to a few half 
rowa,” and our “results” are somewhat paradoxically in “perspective.” 
I thought Mr. S. Castle founded his opinion on excellent results, 
and moreover invited anyone to inspect his Asparagus ; as for myself, 
I must tell Mr. Abbey that for seven years I cut all the growths 
large and small from one bed, and one alone, till June, and it was because 
that bed proved so much better than the others irom which the small 
growths were not cut at all, but only the large, that led me to make the 
further experiment to see more exactly how the improvement was brought 
about. The bed that was cut a3 first described gives the finest heads still, 
though I suspect it is as old as Mr. Abbey is ; and I should on'y have ex¬ 
pected a youngish man to have made such a blunder as he has perpetrated. 
It was really practice and results that led to the experiment that he has 
not tried, and not the experiment that was relied on t® produce certain re¬ 
sults. But while the verdict he hastily gave is obviously worthless, I do 
not suggest that he has not grown splendid Asparagus ; and in all suitable 
soil wide planting on the level will result in better produce than close 
planting, and consequent overcrowding, on raised beds. But I bad better 
n luse, as I fear the subject must be getting tiresome, as also must— 
& Thinker. 
