September 29, 1887. ] 
JOURNAL of horticulture and cottage gardener 
265 
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COMING EVENTS 
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MiciiaelmAs Day. 
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17th Sunday after Trinity. 
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REMARKS ON HARDY FRUITS. 
E do not appear to be making much progress 
in hardy fruit culture if we are to take the 
recorded results of the present season as 
indicating the state of the gardening com¬ 
munity in this matter. Repeatedly the very 
heavy crops and the drought combined have 
been blamed for the smallness of the fruit 
where it has remained on the trees, or for 
the casting of the fruit where it has fallen. This not 
■only in the case of such a common fruit as tbe Apple, but 
the more select kinds, such as Apricots and Peaches, are 
said to have failed for the same reason. In most cases 
gardeners are powerless to do anything to mitigate the 
effect of the drought beyond indulging in a system of 
good cultivation, and perhaps mulching surfaces, but the 
neglect of careful thinning can surely be remedied. In 
most seasons the work is easily overtaken; this year the 
■labour of thinning was greater, but the result well repays 
•any extra work entailed. 
This, which ought to be a matter of ordinary routine 
work, would seem to require pressing on the attention of 
gardeners. It is surely not to our credit that a season 
which ought to have been an overflowing one should be 
rendered a season of poverty either through inattention 
to one of the most apparent details of good fruit culture, 
or failing that reason, then through over-much greed to 
secure a large crop. The only way to arrive at a crop— 
large in all respects—is to thin betimes. Overlooked 
'Lranch’es or trees have with us failed to bring their 
“ load ’ to a condition worth picking at al. This applies 
to a 11 kinds of the larger fruits. Trees judiciously 
thinned have done their work to our satisfaction and with 
no harm to themselves. It may seem a very wasteful 
proceeding to pick off six or a dozen little fruits for every 
one left to swell and ripen, but it is not so. To leave 
more than the tree is able to bring to perfection is waste¬ 
ful. To leave so large a crop as to tax the energies of 
the tree beyond a point of safety is to spoil the present 
and endanger the next year’s crop, and that is a waste¬ 
ful policy. It cannot be too often said that too much 
fruit one year means less or none the year following. A 
itree has not only to produce a crop of fruit, but also to 
prepare for the crop that follows, or should follow. And 
just as surely as it fails to do so when over-cropping is 
allowed, just as certainly will it bear in continued succes¬ 
sion if treated fairly. Everybody growing Grapes knows 
that to be a fundamental principle of good year after year 
Grape culture. With outdoor fruit it is ignored, and 
frosts and winds are blamed for what may be, and most 
likely is, only a perfectly natural result. 
There is another matter in connection with good hardy 
No. 379. —Yol. XV., Third Series. 
fruit culture which requires to be kept to the front. 
That is pruning the trees as soon after the crop has been 
all gathered as is convenient. This work is nearly always 
left till winter, sometimes until spring. But there is no 
time like the present for having the trees thinned and 
pruned. We do not prune Gooseberries, but Raspberries 
and Black Currants have been pruned and thinned. Red 
Currants are left till later, and so are Apples, the latter 
merely having any large branches cut out before the 
leaves fall, as the right distance to leave these can only 
be gauged correctly when the leaves are on the trees. 
Apricots, we find, do best spurred, and it takes a very 
short time to look over a number of trees and cut back, 
or cut out if necessary, any spurs that may require so 
treating. As already said, it is quite easy to note the 
right distances when the leaves are on the trees. Plums 
are treated in the same way, and also take up little time. 
Pears take longer, though only in the case of old trees ; 
young ones necessitate very little work. A good method 
of rendering old Pear trees fruitful is to cut out the older 
and thicker branches and let young ones take their places. 
In a few years these young shoots are very fruitful. 
This treatment is sometimes quite as beneficial as root- 
pruning, perhaps more so. _ Next to cutting out branches 
altogether, it is of great importance to thin the spurs. 
Weakly spurs are not of the slightest benefit to the tree, 
and they give no fruit to the cultivator, therefore cut all 
such clean out, leaving only a fair number of strong 
healthy spurs, which are sure to bear. A few odd hours 
are very well spent in work as above recommended. 
It certainly is.beneficial to the trees, and the difference 
between pruning, will ye, nill ye, in cold winter or spring 
days, and doing the same work in autumn, is a thing 
to be considered. Just now the work is pleasant and 
interesting. 
One point in connection with hardy fruits is gathering 
Apples and Pears. I see very great mistakes made 
sometimes, even in the case of experienced gardeners. 
They make Apple gathering a question of mere routine; 
fix a day for the work to be done, and ready and unfit are 
alike put into store. My experience is that the indi¬ 
vidual characteristics of the varieties must be considered. 
Some do not much resent being gathered in a condition 
of unfitness, others do ; but in the case of all the mere 
seeming is outwardly. Fruit not fully grown and finished 
on the tree can under no conditions be so good as that 
which has been well finished. With the earlier Apples 
and Pears the trees should be visited periodically, and 
those ready for gathering removed. Some of the, at 
first, smaller fruits will hang and swell for a long time, 
and be among the best when at last ready. The mere 
fact of a few Apples or Pears falling off a tree should not 
send one in hot haste to take the rest. By all means leave 
those which will hang. Fruit improves with marvellous 
rapidity in September and the earlier half of October. 
I have noticed Apples increase one-third in size in the 
space of a week. The last week or so also makes all the 
difference in the eating quality of both Apples and Pears, 
Cox’s Pomona and Reinette de Canada left to hang as 
late as possible, merely removing any likely to fall as 
they appear fit, are both improved in quite a won¬ 
derful manner. In Pears Marie Louise should be 
watched like a Peach. Beurre Bachelier, a handsome but 
not over well flavoured variety, may be made or marred 
by gathering. All varieties that ripen late we find are 
sweetest and keep better if left long on the tree. The old 
gardeners had a practice of burying their finer Pears in 
No. 2035. —Yol. LXXYII., Old Series. 
