480 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND vOTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 1, 1887. 
to be freely shortened bach. This part of the subject may, however, be 
reserved till the time has arrived for advising upon the treatment of 
.young trees. If the lateral growth was lightly spurred back once or 
twice during the growing season they will now require to be finally 
shortened, or otherwise long ugly spurs will result, these being alto¬ 
gether out of place on wall trees. All young growths, whether 
previously shortened or not, should be cut cleanly back to near the 
second or third prominent bud or joint, this forming the nucleus of a 
cluster of fruiting spurs. By this time the fruit buds will be easily dis¬ 
tinguished from the wood buds, the former being much the plumpest. 
It is frequently advisable to thin out and shorten large clusters of spurs, 
fruiting or otherwise, but it is those with a terminal wood bud that 
should be principally shortened, the aim being to keep the fruiting wood 
as near the walls as possible without sacrificing a portion of one season’s 
crop. Trees with long ugly spurs should be gradually brought into a 
more desirable state. Thus one half of the old spurs may this season be 
neatly sawn off to within 1 inch of the main branches and the remainder 
next year. The trees being in fairly good health will push out a quantity 
of healthy lateral growths near where pruned, and these may soon be 
converted into clusters of fruit spurs. In many instances it is advisable 
next autumn to lift one half of the roots and relay into fresh loamy 
compost, the remainder being similarly treated the following year. In 
this manner what are now comparatively worthless trees may be changed 
to a most profitable condition, and capable of producing extra fine crops 
of fruit. If any of the wall trees are not worth cultivating, when the 
grafting season arrives cut all the main or side branches hard back and 
regraft with a variety that is worthy of wall space. By no other method 
can a wall be so quickly refurnished with good bearing wood. 
Pyramids, Bushes, and Standards. —These also may now be 
taken in hand with advantage, and it is these which are usually too 
freely pruned. They must be thinned, but in many instances it is 
unwise to shorten many of the leading branch s. Wherever there is 
good space for a fresh branch leave the best placed lateral growth to its 
full length. If shortened in any way, even at the point, these young 
branches will push out a number of fresh shoots, but will form few or 
no fruit buds ; whereas, if left to their full length next season, they 
will make v ry little wood growth, forming instead of this fruit buds at 
every joint. Not only are vigorous trees thus brought into good bearing 
order, but if lateral growths are left thinly all over shy-beaiing or 
exhausted old trees, this soon has a re-invigorating effect on them. Some 
of our best fruit this season was gathered from what at one time were 
useless old trees. They were too old and too large to lift and replant, 
and had the simple experiment of clothing them with healthy young 
branches failed, regrafting would have been resorted to. It must be 
understood that these were pyramidal and bush-shaped trees, and pre¬ 
viously kept rather closely pruned. In the case of unpruned standards, 
th se we would freely thin, leaving as many strong young growths all 
over the tree as possible. The saw as well as the pruning knife is neces¬ 
sary for the work, it being frequently advisable to cut out whole faggots 
of wood from neglected orchard trees. Crowded trees frequently 
produce large crops of fruit, but which are of little value, whereas those 
freely thinned yield heavy crops of fruit of a size and quality to command 
good prices if need be. We have seen large old standards freely cut in 
all over the tree, nothing but numerous short stumps being left. These 
push out a quantity of strong young shoots, which, if duly thinned and 
then left alone, soon arrive at a bearing state. 
In the case of all healthy pyramidal and bush-shaped trees that 
have attained their full size—that is to say, have filled their allotted 
space, the leading shoots must necessarily be cut hard back, and all 
lateral growth be spurred in much as advised in the case of wall trees. 
If. however, there is yet plenty of room all round them, instead of short¬ 
ening back the leading shoots, say to a length of 6 inches, under the im¬ 
pression that it is necessary to gradually build up these main branches, 
they are left their full length, good fruitful trees will be much more 
quickly grown, requiring little or no root-pruning to bring them into 
full bearing order. They may appear rather weakly at first, and per¬ 
haps offend the eye of the critical trainer, but this changes in time, and 
after all that is said or thought the ordinary consideration should be 
how best to quickly secure heavy crops of fruit. Those Pears on the 
Quince stock and Apples on the Paradise stock are not often likely to 
grow too vigorously, the reverse being the rule, not enough healthy 
growths being formed on them. Such trees are apt to grow unevenly, 
one side becoming stunted while the other grows strongly. These are 
the worse to deal with. The best remedy is to freely shorten the shoots 
on the vigorous portion of the tree now, and during next summer pre¬ 
vent them again taking the lead. This may induce a better growth on 
the stunted portion and prevent the formation of a one-sided tree. 
Stunted leading branches on wall trees are sometimes lightly shortened 
back and redrafted with excellent effect, and the same plan might be 
adopted in the case of garden trees. Poverty at the roots may also have 
something to do with the uneven growth of these miniature trees, and 
those that are stunted especially ought to be replanted in fairly rich 
loamy compost. The least that can be done in the case of overworked 
trees is to bare the roots, covering them with a liberal dressing of short 
manure prior to returning the soil. 
THE FLOWER GARDEN AND PLEASURE GROUND. 
Hoses on their own Hoots .—In most gardens the most vigorous and 
floriferous Roses are the dwarfs on their own roots. At any rate, if 
these do not flower more freely than those on the Manettiand Briar stocks 
they are invariably the longest livers, being less liable to injury by frosts, 
and seldom refuse to grow in almost any soil. Unfortunately they can¬ 
not be bought, and those who want them must perforce strike their own 
stock of plants. Nor is this a very difficult matter to accomplish, as if 
treated like Gooseberries and Currants they strike almost as readily. 
November and the early part of December is the best time for inserting 
the cuttings in the open ground, but they will root if the work of pro¬ 
pagating is delayed till near pruning time, the cuttings in this case be 
disposed at the foot of a north wall. Our plan is to give up a good 
piece of open ground to the Rose cuttings, mixing plenty of road grit 
and a little manure with the soil, according as the cuttings are put. in. 
Well ripened young wood is selected, these being first shortened into 
1 foot lengths, then cleanly cot across at the lowest joint, rubbing off 
all thorns and shaving the lower buds at the same time. A trench 
6 inches deep is then cut, and after a little road grit has been scattered 
along this the cuttings are inserted, and the soil is then firmly trod about 
them. Another trench is then cut, more cuttings put in, and so we pro¬ 
ceed till the whole space is covered with several hundred cuttings. We 
dispose the rows 15 inches apart and the cuttings about 10 inches apart 
in the rows. On no account should the cuttings be kept out of the 
ground long after they are made, as should they once become dry a 
failure is bound to result. A surface mulching of leaf soil, spent tan, 
short manure, or ashes serves to check upheaval by frosts ; but if in spite 
of this precaution frosts penetrate deeply it will be necessary, after it 
has left the ground, to well fix it about the cuttings again, as they will 
fail to strike if the soil is at all loose. Any that were struck last season, 
unless very weakly, may be safely transplanted to where they are to 
flower for some time. Lift carefully, saving as many roots as possible, 
and replant in well worked and fairly rich soil. Long straggling shoots 
ought to be shortened considerably, or otherwise they are caught by the 
wind, and wind waving is most injurious to newly planted Roses. 
Where newly rooted Roses are plentiful and cut flowers are in great de¬ 
mand it is a good plan to plant a number of them lather thickly, 
pruning them early next year and covering with garden frames. They 
will produce a quantity of useful blooms long before those in the open 
are plentiful. 
THE PURGATORIAL PROCESS FOR CURING 
FOUL BROOD. 
At page 371 “A Hallamskire Bee-keeper” gives 
what he considers a new discovery for the cure of odour¬ 
less foul brood, and at page 372 finds fault with the 
Editor of the British Bee J>urnal on some points in con¬ 
nection with the discovery of this disease. Bacillus minor 
was so named by the writer of “Useful Hints” in the 
British Bee Journal I do not doubt; but as his mode of 
cure known as the purgatorial process a quarter of a 
century since was fully described in the columns of this 
Journal by various writers, such as “ A Renfrewshire Bee¬ 
keeper,” and Mr. T. W. Woodbury and others, including 
myself, the process is certainly not new. At the same 
time it is the most satisfactory and profitable way of 
curing foul brood. I have not the numbers containing 
the successful reports of the cure of foul brood, but from 
1862 onwards the most upon the subject will be seen. 
The idea of it being a congenital disease is not new either, 
as the answer to me upon the subject will be found in 
some of the numbers about the time mentioned. It was 
doubtless owing to some neglect of mine that these 
queens produced foul brood after often the treble-starving 
process. When prepared properly (and “ A Hallamshire 
Bee-keeper” is near the mark with his description) I 
never knew a single case of failure, and I am of the 
opinion that it is a mistake to suppose any form of foul 
brood is congenital farther than what germs may be in¬ 
troduced to her by the bees when feeding with the pre¬ 
pared pap. The rapidity with which these germs are 
produced when in a proper nidus is wonderful, and if a 
queen was affected with them to any extent, especially from 
birth, she would either not survive long or become sterile. 
I have not seen a single foul brood cell in my apiary 
for many years, at least amongst my own stock, the 
disease disappearing after the introduction of a better 
