January 21, 1892. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
85 
E 
THE GARDENERS’ ROYAL 
BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION. 
1 
T hough during the past week sadness has been brought into 
thousands of hearts and homes by the sudden death of a 
most amiable Prince, and the sympathy of the nation has gone 
out with rare spontaniety towards all who were dear to him, yet 
during the same period of sorrow the anxieties of those aged 
gardeners, and the widows of gardeners, have been lightened and 
their prospects brightened who have become participants of the 
benefits of the right Royal Institution above named. Great and 
good is the work that this noble charity has done ; yet well as it 
has been supported by many generous hearted subscribers, it 
cannot meet the calls upon it by necessitous applicants, and no less 
than nineteen of these must struggle on as best they can till 
adequate funds are subscribed to assist them in their old age and 
infirmity. While the deep commiseration of all connected with 
Journal of Horticulture is felt for the greatest in the land in 
their time of trouble, it is also extended to those veterans and 
needy in connection with gardening who failed in being elected as 
annuitants on Friday last of the Institution to which they 
longingly looked for aid. Glad shall we be if contributions couid 
flow in during the present year to enable the Committee to elect 
all as beneficiaries in 1892, who must now be so grievously disap¬ 
pointed. Still there is cause for thankfulness that so much has 
been done, and it is so far cheering to observe in the report of 
the Committee on page 48 that a greater amount was expended in 
pensions last year than during any similar period in its history. 
The sum so disbursed was nearly £1740, and the good it has done 
in providing homely comforts to the recipients cannot be expressed 
even if comprehended. It is further officially stated that since 
the establishment of the Institution, more than fifty years ago, 
upwards of £55,000 have been distributed in pensions and 
gratuities to needy recipients. That is a splendid amount truly, and 
surely no money has been better spent and more worthily provided. 
Reference is naturally made to the deaths which have occurred 
during the year in connection with the Institution. One of its 
Vice-Presidents, the Duke of Devonshire, passed away, leaving a 
record of good works behind him, and the loss of two useful 
members of the Committee, Mr. W. Richards and Mr. F. Meston, 
next is deplored. But the greatest blank was made by the sudden 
demise of the late Secretary, Mr. E. R. Cutler, whose services 
during a period of half a century were so highly appreciated. It 
was felt that an official so zealous in the interests of the charity, 
and with such a wide connection, would be difficult to follow, and 
it is, therefore, the more gratifying to learn that the present able 
and most courteous Secretary, Mr. G. J. Ingram, is proving a com¬ 
petent successor. His previous experience in the conduct of 
charities specially fitted him for the position he now fills, and, 
with the co-operation of an active and practical Committee, the 
public may rest in the assurance that the Institution will not be 
less prudently managed in the future than it has been in the past. 
We are told that seventeen pensioners died during the year, and 
the widows of three were eligible to succeed their late husbands, 
though one of them did not live long to enjoy the pension ; and 
one veteran, James WeUs, after receiving annuities during a period 
of thirty-one years, departed at the age of 103, having received 
no less than £521 from the funds of the Institution during his 
long career. 
No. 604.— VoL. XXIV., Third Series. 
As stated in the report, thirteen new pensioners were to be 
placed on the books this year — six without election (according 
to rule), and seven by the votes of subscribers ; but instead of 
seven, the Committee were able t) have ten elected. The 
disposition is to do the greatest possible amount of good con¬ 
sistently with sound finance, and it remains for a thoughtful 
public who appreciate the services of gardeners, and for gardeners 
themselves who are in comfortable circumstances, to support the 
Institution, and enable it to extend its beneficent operations. 
We trust that all who can do so will not fail to be enrolled as 
members, and they will be the happier if they never need its aid. 
The greatest encouragement to the affluent to subscribe generously 
to this and similar institutions is to see a willingness of the class 
for whom the benefits are intended to do what they can in making 
provision for their aged fellow men who have worked hard, long, 
and creditably, too often for emoluments quite incommensurate 
with their ability and zeal. 
WINTER PRUNING. 
Pruning is not a mere detail of garden practice, it is a science, 
which should have a much higher place in horticulture than it 
has held hitherto. The amount of harm done in gardens with 
the pruning knife by ignorant men is beyond belief, and by way 
of test every gardener should be able to give a satisfactory reason, 
for each cut made, to explain why a shoot is pruned or not pruned, 
to show that his work as a whole is conducive, not only to fruit¬ 
fulness, but to the production of fine fruit. In many gardens 
the annual pruning of fruit trees is now being dose ; the trees have 
produced their crop of vigorous shoots, which are now being 
shortened to within an inch or two of the base. What is the 
use of such growth ? What is the use of such pruning ? Let 
me invite every society for the mutual improvement of gardeners 
to take these queries for discussion at their next meeting, to try 
and make it clear to every member that the growth of a fruit 
tree is for the production of fruit, and not of flower sticks. How 
anyone can go on year after year contentedly hacking oft a 
thicket of wood, and getting little, if any, fruit for his pains is 
past comprehension. 
The remedy is obvious. If it is required to retain growth 
within prescribed limits and symmetrical outline recourse must be 
had to root-pruning to check undue vigour of growth. Coinci¬ 
dent with this there must be a judicious and tentative system of 
summer pruning to induce a free production of blossom buds, a 
rapid development of spurs. Winter pruning of such trees then 
resolves itself into the removal of useless spray, the pruning of 
sub-laterals shortened at the end of August—a detail of summer 
pruning—any necessary thinning of spurs and spur growth, the 
shortening of leaders, and it may be the thinning of branches 
which becomes necessary as spur development goes on. If you 
want fine fruit and plenty of it from spurs, the spurs must be 
fine. Have the branches of pyramids, cordons, bushes, and 
espaliers wide apart, and bristling with bold fruit buds, and 
remember that branch-thinning as well as spur-thmning often 
becomes a necessity. 
Where freedom of growth is possible the shoots of trees of 
exceptional vigour should be left at full length and be well thinned. 
The beneficial effect of this treatment upon both Pears and Apples 
is seen either in the first or second year, subsequently in the 
increase of fruit buds. It is not altogether a question of sorts. 
I have two trees of Lord Suffield Apple, one of which so treated 
had its long robust shoots so thickly set with blossom buds that it 
was laden with a heavy crop of fruit in the second season. On the 
other fruit came more slowly, but it came eventually, both trees 
beinc^ changed from barrenness to fruitfulness by the simple 
remedy of thinning shoots freely, and leaving the remainder 
unshortened. The treatment applies to established trees, often 
No. 2260.—VoL. LXXXVL, Old Series. 
