June 10, 1886. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
459 
of Pears” Granted, but what a difference! It is the short- 
jointed thoroughly solidified growth that give3 the Grapes on 
the laterals, stubby hardened wood that gives the second crop 
or fruit on the current year’s growth of Pears. Soft, gross, long- 
jointed wood is no use for a crop in the current; it rarely is of 
any value for a crop of fruit in the year following formation, 
and it seldom if ever becomes so ripened as to lay the foundation 
of a healthy and long-lived fruitful free. 
The cause of fruit not stoning is due to similar conditions 
being wanted as regards the setting, and this entirely results 
from the conditions under which the growth is made, the buds 
formed, and the wood perfected in the previous season. What 
is wanted is thoroughly solidified growth, and foliage kept 
healthy until it falls naturally. This effected, we can hardly 
fail of perfect blossom, a good set, and a satisfactory stoning. 
If, on the other hand, we seek gross long-jointed wood the result 
is sterility. If we get blossom it is sparse; it may even set, but 
the chances are it will not pass the stoning process. This is 
very annoying, and though immature wood is a chief cause of 
fruit not stoning it is not by any means everything. We see 
trees year after year masses of bloom, and yet the appetite of 
the owner is not further gladdened. “ Tour ripened wood theory 
is of no use in bringing a crop of fruit,” some may say; “ my 
Cherry, Pear, and other fruit tree? blossom well, they never give 
any fruit worth naming.” I fully know your case, and sympa¬ 
thise with you. It hardly, however, comes within my present 
intentions, and yet without a set there can be no stoning, and 
we cannot well take account of one without the other. 
Fruitfulness is a natural effect of a constitutionally healthy 
plant properly nourished. The weakly trees as a rule make the 
greatest effort at reproduction; the gross, but it by no means 
follows healthy, trees give the finest specimens of their kind, 
with an inherent tendency in the progeny to transmit the sparse¬ 
ness of reproduction, whilst the very gross are sterile We 
clearly do not want the weak nor yet the gross, but we do require 
a plant to be so weak as to be fruitful, and so gross as to secure 
to us as large an amount of useful produce as possible. Growths 
that formerly would have been considered too gross and sappy 
and would have been cut awiy as useless are now fruited ; shoots 
of Peaches as thick as the finger and twice the length of walking 
sticks are made to give fruit of a quality excelling any produced 
from wood that was only left a few inches long. In the one we 
have no more wood than is wanted, and in the other wood encou¬ 
raged only for the purpose of cutting it away. The first is 
grown thin'y so that light and air have free access, the other 
is grown thick and cut back to ripe wood at the base. Neither 
is of any good unless the wood is ripe. This is the first great 
principle in fruit cultivation. Without ripe wood there is nothing. 
We may get strong wo id, large blossoms on Peach trees, large 
loose bunches of Grapes, even set them, but we may be certain 
that the Peaches will not stone and the Grapes will exhibit a 
large per centage of stoneless berries On the other hand over¬ 
ripe wood has no such tendency. By over-ripe wood is meant 
the tendency to produce blossoms, as is common with early- 
forced Peaches, Cherries, &c., when the trees should be 
going to lest, which is fatal to the succeeding crop. The wood 
is never too ripe for a perfect b'ossom, and never too ripe for 
stoning. We must, however, have perfect blossoms perfectly 
fertilised or the fruit will not set; therefore what is essential to 
a good set is essenti i.l to stoning. In this respect they are inse¬ 
parable, but they are divisible in that the wood may be only so 
ripe as to secure a good set, and yet so unripe as not to secure 
stoning. The most common instances of this are in the case 
of the Peach and Cherry, and in tint of the seeding of Figs. 
Grossnes3, long-jointedness, and immaturity never fail of ste¬ 
rility ; firm short-jointed wood properly nourished and matured 
cannot be had without attending increase. 
Fruit does not stone, therefore, because the wood is not ripe, 
but the result may be equally disastrous through a weakening of 
the vital forces by overcropping, and accelerated by poverty. 
Just as in over-blossoming much can be effected by timely thinning 
the blossoms in strengthening those that remain so as to secure 
a good set, so in thinning the fruit and in affording nutriment 
much can be obtained in respect of the fruit stoning satisfac¬ 
torily. The chief cause of fruit not stoning is not so much 
shown in the year of prevalence as in the preceding. It is due 
mainly to over luxuriance, a str ng long-jointed late growth, the 
wood not solidified as made, and never thoroughly ripened To 
check this root-pruning is the only effectual remedy. Training 
the shoots thinly so as t 1 let in light and air, and summer prun¬ 
ing in that it exercises some check on root-action, is useful. Too 
rich soil is also bad, and worse is a deep border with the roots 
far from the surface. The only safety for fruit stoning is a 
short-jointed growth well exposed to light and air. To effect 
this the soil must be firm, and the roots must be near the surface 
in a well drained border. No remedy need be tried but this — 
viz., lifting and replanting. Sometimes, however, the luxuriance 
is not great yet to make so much difference in the growth and 
its ripening as to affect the crop prejudicially at stoning. I 
have had Peach trees that have made over 6 feet of growth in a 
season, and ripened up to the ends, fruiting satisfactorily in a 
house, ripening the fruit at the close of May or June, whilst 
others in a house not ripening before August or September, lost 
a large per centage of the fruit in stoning. By training the 
growths thinner, and taking a trench out one-third the distance 
from the stem that the trees cover of the trellis, and as deep as the 
roots when the growth had ceased, or in late September, the 
supply of nutriment were so arrested that the growth ripened 
perfectly, and the fruit afterwards stoned satisfactorily. There 
was very little difference in the trees, and yet there was a great 
diversity in the result. Evidently the early trees had a longer 
season and more heat to mature in, the others had to mature 
their growth in the less favoured conditions of late summer, and 
consequently required gre iter space or more light and air, and 
a lessened supply of nutriment. 
It is very similar with Tines. If we have large bunches we 
must have strong wood, and this must have more light and air, 
or a greater space for the full exposure of the foliage to all the 
influences of light, and not only this, but the roots must be kept 
near the surface in soil that will cause them to ramify and afford 
food in a steady progressive manner. Deep rich borders would 
only give long-jointed wood and loose bunches of stoneless 
berries, except of the coarser and freer setting varieties, which 
though they set well rarely finish satisfactorily. Some Grapes 
are notoriously bad setters and these it is generally considered 
require a higher temperature at the flowering stage than the- 
free setters. Muscat of Alexandria, Black Morocco, and some- 
others are given 5° to 10° more than other late varieties. Is it 
because they are more heat-requiring, or is it a consequence of 
the wood not being perfectly ripe ? We know that sometimes 
these and some other Grapes do not set well even with artificial 
impregnation and a high temperature, and there are many more 
stoneless berries one season than another, and this we attribute 
to many things—a deficiency of water, loss of foliage from red 
spider, or scorching; in fact, we have causes without end; but the 
chief cause is no doubt immature wood, imperfectly developed 
buds or bunches in embryo. In the case of Figs we have excellent 
results from trees in pots and from those in holders of limited 
area with the growth near the glass in full glare of day, but we 
have gross wood immature and unfruitful when the borders are 
wide and rich, and the fruit is cast like Medlars after frost. We- 
have, in fact, no Figs simply because the growth is not solidified 
as made, and the wood does not ripen, but remains soft and 
pithy.—G. Abbey. 
(To be continued.) 
EUPATOR1UM9. 
I QUITE agree with your correspondent “ G. P.” at page 378 about the 
usefulness of the Eupatorium? there mentioned, and can testify that his 
management for plants in 48’s or 32-sized pots is quite correct. E. 
riparium I find does best from cutting", and to procure large specimens of 
E. odoratum I place out the plants alter being cut back in rich soil in a 
moist c rner 3 feet apart each way. These are kept well watered through 
the summer months, occasionally with liquid manure. The plants are 
stopped to keep them in shape until the mid lie of August. About the 
middle of September the roots are cut round with a sharp spade, leaving 
a ball about the size of the pot iotended for their recepuon. The plants 
are taken up a fortnight later and potted firmly, left outside as long as 
weather permits, and drenched with water. The plants are then placed 
in a cool house, giving them plenty of room. Treated in this way they 
become 3 feet in height and as much in diameter. The only staking or 
tying required is simply looping up the loose branches. I do not agree 
with “ G. P.” as to the flat training. I consider naturally grown plants 
far more useful, especially for cutting. I hive had plants ot E. odoratum 
so treated with 150 heads of flowers open by the middle of November, 
and continued flowering till after Christmas. When the flowering season 
is over the plants are cut back and placed in a cold pit till the followieg 
May, then if too large divided with a sharp knife.—J. P. 
CHRYSANTHEMUMS AND THFIR CULTURE. 
(Continued from page 439.) 
PLACING PLANTS OUT OF DOORS. 
Cultivators of Chrysanthemums must be guided in placing 
the plants out of doors by the locality in which they are situated ; 
as for instance, those who reside on a hill are not subject to late 
spring frosts to the same extent as others in low districts. In the 
south of England the plants may safely be removed outside the 
