Mareli 19, 1891. ] 
JOURXAL OF HOnriCULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
219 
page 171 (the issue of the 2Gth ult.) ‘'R. M.” refers to my 
^ article on the subject of planting fruit trees in spring, which 
appeared a fortnight previously, and also describes the methods he 
adopted in transplanting some large Pear trees. I hope they will 
succeed, though they were really planted in winter when the 
ground was probably about as cold as it could be short of being 
■frozen, and I suspect fresh roots will not be produced a moment 
sooner than if the removal had been effected a month later, if as 
soon. There can be no doubt that early autumn, when the ground 
is still warm, also moist, is the best time for planting all kinds of 
trees ; but I regard spring as preferable to winter for supplement¬ 
ing or completing the projected work, always provided this is 
done well at a time when the soil is in a free working state. I 
have satisfied myself by experiments that trees root sooner and 
grow better transplanted in mild weather just after the sap com¬ 
mences moving than they do when as completely at rest as they 
can be in midwinter, subject to the very important condition that 
the roots are kept moist when out of the ground. Sap movement, 
and especially the descending current, depositing cambium, incites 
fresh root-action under appropriate soil temperature. The sap 
“terminating in not broken, but smoothly pruned roots, naturally 
causes an enlargement there—a callus or cushion of tissue—from 
w'hich new roots issue. In the autumn, as both the descending sap 
current and the earth heat are considerable, new roots form 
-quickly. In spring the sip is more active and the earth warmer 
than in the dead of winter, therefore with trees properly planted 
and managed in spring the rooting process is facilitated accord¬ 
ingly- 
If trees are planted in the dead of winter and some of them 
pruned closely at the same time while the branches of the others 
are not shortened till the buds commence swelling in spring, these 
latter will, as a rule, break the more “ kindly ” and root the more 
freely in consequence. There may be, and doubtless are, excep¬ 
tions, according to the individual peculiarities of trees, but so far 
as my observations extend those exceptions are only of the ordinary 
kind which prove the rule. 
I had some early lessons in spring pruning young trees from a 
celebrated Peach grower named Seymour. Many gardeners have 
seen “ Seymour’s System ” of pruning and training illustrated, but 
comparatively few have seen it in operation, and not one in a hun¬ 
dred, or probably one in a thousand, could start a tree and train it 
to anything like the perfection that he did. His work more nearly 
approached mathematical accuracy than any I have seen, and his 
trees grown on open walls in the Duke of St. Alban’s garden in 
Lincolnshire I have not seen equalled elsewhere either under glass 
or against garden walls, though many of these were, and are, most 
•creditable to their cultivators. 
In these utilitarian days the chief desire is to cover walls and 
trellises as speedily as possible with branches, regardless of any 
particular form or style of training, and therefore many Peach and 
• erther trees are not shortened after planting, or very slightly. The 
iplan answers very well the purpose in view, but it would not 
answer in preparing trees to be trained as Seymour trained them. 
In what may be called the free-and-easy method of covering walls 
plenty of buds break, and form branches sufficient for the purpose 
whether pruning is resorted to or not; but in the Seymourian 
system just the buds you wish to break must be made to do so, and 
these in the formation of young trees are near the base of tie 
branches. The buds there are weaker than these at a greater di:- 
tance from them, and naturally more tardy in starting. Yet these 
weak buds must be made to start contemporaneously with those 
above them, and grow as freely. This they cannot be relied on to 
do -vi’hen the branches are cut back in the “ dead ” of winter, for 
the end bads start first and the others follow, producing later and 
weaker growths ; but if the sap is allowed to flow through the 
stems and push the terminal bud till the young leaves are visible, 
and “ spring ” several of the buds below it, then the branches are 
cut back to the point desired, basal buds break freely that would 
otherwise have remained dormant or started weakly. That was 
Seymour’s practice, and his splendid success proved it sound, L,t 
the buds “ lift the sap, start the pump,” he used to say, “ and you 
will not stop the flow by cutting through the stream ; but by con¬ 
centrating the force on the lower buds they are forced into action. * 
lie w'as right, as I have seen proved in scores of instances over a 
period of twoscore of years. 
The principle in question applies to all kinds of trees, whether 
trained against walls or grown in the open. If, as is usually the 
case, the basal buds are desired to start freely they will be the 
more certain to do so if the young branches of recently planted 
trees are not shortened till the sip is distinctly moving than they 
would if the pruning were done when it was in a torpid state, and 
the sap movement in addition has its influence in summoning 
the roots into activity. The pruning no doubt checks the 
flow momentarily, but if the weather be mild does not arrest it 
materially, as nothing will do that but cold, such as frosty nights 
and dry biting east winds, and these are not so likely to occur late 
in the spring as earlier. I am alluding to trees planted in the 
winter, for those which are planted soon enough in the autumn to 
commencing rooting at once will, if pruned before Christmas, 
start into growth freely when the right time comes. 
It has been said, and the opinion is yet held by some persons 
whose scientific training entitles them to be listened to with respec^, 
that pruning after the buds burst in spring is weakening in its 
tendency. First we are told, and this is obvious, that we deprive the 
tree of the sap in the branches removed ; and secondly, there is an 
alleged great loss by “ bleeding,” and that the subsequent growths 
are weaker in consequence. In respect to the former objection let us 
present the case analogically. We find a spring from which water 
issues somewhat feebly, and it trickles away through a hundred 
channels. We prevent this distribution through so many miniature 
conduits, and hold the water up near its source, and confine it to 
half a dozen outlets. What is the result ? Though we naturally 
lose the water that trickled away beyond the point of contraction 
we very soon have a far greater force in each of the six channels 
than could be possible in each of, say, six dozen. The concentra¬ 
tion of the pressure gives fo^’ce to the flow. Is it not the same in 
respect to the sap movement in fruit trees ? When the roots are 
much reduced in the process of transplanting they can only supply 
sap feebly, and the greater the length and number of channels it 
traverses and the more numerous the buds on which it acts the 
more is its pressure reduced on each ; but shorten the channels 
and confine the pressure to a comparatively few buds, the greater 
of necessity must be the pressure on them, and the stronger, also 
of necessity, must be the growth from each. That is a very 
simple, but perhaps intelligible, explanation of what I think the 
practice of most persons proves is a practical fact. 
Now let us pass to the weakening through bleeding. Vines are 
not in question now, but outdoor trees. When the branches are 
cut back after growth commences there is no doubt a little escape 
of sap, but as a rule it is infinitessimal, and much more than counter¬ 
balanced by the stronger flow that speedily follows through the 
much reduced number of buds, and the growths from them are 
increased in vigour accordingly. As an example of this let us 
No. 660,—VoL. XXII., Third Series. 
No. 221G.—Yol. LXXXIV., Old Series. 
