418 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ May 22, 1390. 
now strangers, and to all fruit trees a vigour that would greatly 
assist in turning the tide in favour of the home grower against the 
invasion of our markets by imported Apples. — G. Abbey. 
■\Ve are constantly being told that if we would only grow our Eoses 
on their own roots we should have no trouble with suckers ; but as we 
persistently neglect this advice, thinking we know best, a word or two 
on the matter of this nuisance may be useful and seasonable. 
Suckers on the Manetti are the most insidious. An experienced 
Eose grower will detect a shoot of it in a moment among a forest of 
branches ; but it is certainly more like the Eose shoot than the Briar is, 
and often those who have given little attention to the matter are unable 
to distinguish it at all. Someone stated some time ago, in the Journal 
I think, that he had never viewed a collection of Eoses without detect¬ 
ing it somewhere, and I remember myself going to inspect the Eoses of 
a lady who had large gardens and a good staff of gardeners. When she 
asked me how it was she had so few blooms, I was obliged to say it was 
because there were very few Eoses there. They were principally bushes 
of Manetti. Not long ago I saw a large plant of Manetti carefully 
trained up the south wall of a house, and later it was in bloom ; and I 
have also found it tended and tied up to an arch as a pillar Eose. I do 
not want to reopen the Manetti controversy, but my contention is that 
if Manetti suckers be rigorously extirpated they must eome to an end, 
for that the Manetti root perishes after a while. Have those who say 
it does not thus die ever had a Manetti sucker from a Eose they are 
sure has shown no such sucker, not even a leaf, for say four consecutive 
previous years ? 
Standard Eoses, especially those that are extra tall or loosely staked, 
are generally the most productive of suckers. This seems to be a beau¬ 
tiful provision of Nature to prevent the stem being uprooted by the 
wind. The plant feels itself insecure, and so throws out a sucker, 
which continues underground for a short distance, and then makes a 
shoot upwards and a root downwards. This is an anchor, and I fully 
expect it would be usually found to go in the direction where it 
suffers most from wind, just as large trees exposed to strong breezes 
from one quarter will be found especially braced by roots, and balanced 
by long and heavy limhs on that side. Another similar sucker in two or 
three other directions, and the main stem is secured against the 
possibility of being uprooted by any gale. And the moral of this is 
keep your standards firmly staked, and do not have them too tall. 
Briar cuttings ought to have no suckers if the buds were rigorously 
taken out from the original cutting; but they 'will sometimes, especially 
if the collar be above the surface of the ground. If a root gets exposed, 
or has an elbow too near the surface, suckers will often form readily ; 
and of course, if the Eose dies from frost or feebleness while the roots 
are alive and healthy, the poor things must get rid of the sap they 
make somehow if they can, and they generally will. Eoses on seedling 
Briars which are well established are, I think, the freest from suckers 
of all worked plants, but they make a great many the first year. My 
seedling Briars budded last season are forming a quantity, though the 
buds were inserted below the level of the ground. Some of them, 
though the Eose is growing, have a fresh crop of suckers every three or 
four days. 
No doubt, the formation of these troublesome growths on all cut¬ 
back worked Eoses is very much encouraged by late and severe pruning. 
The roots are healthy and strong, and very highly fed, and are working 
away, when growth is suddenly checked, and they naturally try to 
force the sap through any channel they can find or make. In getting 
rid of a sucker we should remember that if the last little bit be not 
taken out there will be trouble later on, perhaps for years, and it is 
therefore important to know how best to get it clean out at the socket. 
A chop from a spade or other cutting instrument will plainly not effect 
this, and may do injury to useful roots. Judicious hand-pulling I 
believe to be the best method ; take hold of it as low down as possib'e, 
work it about to see which way it goes best; “ gently does it,” for it is 
very brittle, and will readily snap. If the soil is stiff and caked, loosen 
and remove it cautiously with an old knife, or something of the sort; 
keep shifting your hold as far down as you can, and then you must 
humour it. “ Use him as though you loved him,” as Izaak Walton said 
of the proper way of putting a worm on a hook : pull with a steady 
strain, this way or that way, up or down, as the feel of it seems to 
suggest; and when it does come at last look at the end to see whether 
it has come right out, and has broken after all, for in the latter case 
you must grub away again with your knife till you do get that last bit. 
It is astonishing what long and formidable suckers may be got clean 
out by thus earefully pulling them ; but only this year’s growth can 
be got at in this manner. A sucker chopped off last year is nearly 
certain to grow again, and the most cautious pulling will only get what 
has grown from the old bit. Bodily lifting the plant in winter and 
paring the place with a sharp knife is about the only way of 
preventing an old sucker growing the next spring, and we should, 
therefore, be all the more cautious in getting fresh suckers clean out 
while we can. 
But cannot we make suckers of any use ? A few years ago an 
enthusiastic rosarian, who had a great many of these thick red fleshy 
shoots coming through the ground, said he was sure they ought to be as 
good as Asparagus, and I believe he did go so far as to have some of 
them boiled, but I do not faney he repeated the experiment. It 
reminded me of a statement I saw in some paper or book that the 
roots of Spear Grass (Triticum repens) contained a good deal of nourish¬ 
ment, and that farmers ought to boil them down and feed their pigs 
on them. If these things were true, both rosarians and pigs might be 
amply and cheaply fed in some places that I know. I have also heard- 
it suggested that bits of old suckers planted would make sufficiently 
strong growth to be useful as dwarf stocks. I do not know whether- 
the experiment has ever been tried, but I fear there would be a great 
tendency to form fresh suckers when the time came for the growth to- 
be cut back. 
Any growth of the stock below the scion must be prejudicial to the- 
latter, but my idea is, that if we can pet the Briar to make wild growth 
above the place where it is budded, it may, in the case of varieties of 
weak growth and constitution, be “a succour” to the plant. (The- 
joke is purposely fired off, in order to draw attention to the suggestion,, 
which I have mentioned before in the Journal.) I have now a few 
plants of Horace Vernet which were budded on Briar cuttings the year- 
before last. The stocks were unfortunately weak, and the maiden 
plants naturally followed suit. But the wild growth at the top was- 
not entirely done away with, only pinched back, and as soon as the- 
Eose had bloomed, the Briar was allowed to grow again above it. This- 
would, I thought, strengthen the roots ; and certainly the plants seem, 
contrary to their usual custom, to be breaking stronger this second year 
than they did the first.—W. E. Eaillem. 
P.S.—Mr. T. Crosswell is to be commended for his success with 
cuttings of Mardchal Niel. In this Eose especially, I find a great 
superiority in worked plants, and cannot help thinking that a single 
standard (at 23 . Od.) planted and treated under glass, as previously- 
described in the Journal, would have given him, with much less care 
and trouble, at least as many good blooms as one of his cuttings, in one- 
year after planting, and perhaps double as many as the eight put. 
together the next year. 
THE BRITISH FRUIT GROWERS’ ASSOCIATION". 
A meeting of the above Association was held at the Horticultural 
Club, Hotel Windsor, Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W., on Thursday,. 
May 15th, T. F. Rivers, Esq., in the chair. The special object of the 
meeting was to consider the scheme for the fruit report which had been 
prepared by the sub-committee appointed for that purpose on May 
1st. The Honorary Secretary in explaining the report and the method 
proposed to be adopted, stated that a work of this character had been 
part of the original intention of the Association, but until now they 
had not felt sufficiently strong to undertake it. They had, however,, 
received so many encouraging assurances of assistance from members- 
and correspondents throughout the kingdom that the majority of the 
difficulties had been removed. The pecuniary consideration was the- 
only one of importance that remained, and that had been partly removed 
by the Duke of Bedford’s contribution, while sufficient promises of 
support in other directions had been received to render it quite safe to- 
proceed in the work. It was pointed out that according to the 
agricultural returns there was in 1888 a decrease in the land under 
fruit culture of over 3000 acres. In the autumn of that year the- 
fruit conferences of the Association were held at the Crystal Palace, 
and as they were reported and noticed in over one hundred 
metropolitan and provincial papers the matter must have been 
brought to the attention of considerably more than a million persons.. 
In the returns for 1889 there is an increase of nearly 6000 acres devoted 
to fruit either as orchards or small fruit, and the Association may fairly 
claim to have had a share in this extension. At the present time out 
of a total cultivated area in Great Britain of 32,000,000 acres, about 
240,000 only are occupied with fruit, yet it is a matter of fact, within 
the knowledge of many persons, that thousands of acres under ordinary 
farm crops are barely paying the rent which could with moderate ex- 
denditure be made to yield a much better return under fruit culture. 
The matter must, however, be approached in a calm manner ; very 
careful consideration is required, with practical knowledge as a guide, 
and a good cause has often been injured by ignorant enthusiasm and- 
premature action. It is intended by the Association that the report to 
be prepared shall give a faithful and impartial description of the 
present condition and pro.spects of fruit culture for profit in Great 
Britain and Ireland ; it will be made as comprehensive as possible, and 
no visionary projects will be propounded. It is hoped to render the- 
work a reliable guide to intending fruit cultivators, and of service also- 
to ihose already so engaged, and the Committee invite the assistance of 
all interested in a work of public importance. 
The scheme submitted and adopted unanimously is as follows r—The" 
introductory chapters will deal with climate and soils in relation to 
fruit culture, land tenure, rent rates and tithes, hardy fruit culture, 
fruit culture under glass, fruit preservation, stocks, insects, fungi, 
diseases and remedies. The report will include summaries of the chief 
