160 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 16,1894. 
the warm hoase had more water supplied to their roots than was good 
for them. As the Peach trees required water so were the Tomato plants 
supplied, not otherwise. Syringing is, no doubt, effectual, and may 
be gradually practised, of course, judiciously, on a large scale.— 
Geo. Gabnee, Cadland . 
EIPENED WOOD. 
Me. RAILLEM (page 126) takes up the cudgels against me on behalf 
of the faddists, therefore I must expect a drubbing. But with all due 
deference I would ask whether he has not rather given himself away by 
saying “ that ripened wood has done its share when it has produced the 
flower buds, and is not responsible for those blossoms opening, still less 
for their producing fruit.” Do we grow Plums, Pears, and Apples for 
flowers or fruit ? If the latter, then blooming is only a means to an 
end, and I for one regard profusion thereof as a distinct disadvantage, 
the production of excessive and unnecessary amounts of blossom entail¬ 
ing too great a strain on the vitality of the trees and seriously 
enfeebling their constitution for at least one season, if not longer. So 
experienced a cultivator as your correspondent has probably realised 
this fact years ago. Should he still doubt, however, I could show him 
proofs both in my own and other gardens. I will just mention one. A 
large pyramid Pear tree this spring produced only fifteen blooms, yet 
every one set, and fifteen fine Pears now hang on that tree in striking 
contrast to many of its neighbours, which were covered with snowy 
blossoms and have not a single fruit on them, the whole energy of 
those trees having been dissipated during that exhausting process, the 
flowering stage, 
Mr. Raillem may, however, claim that the barrenness of such trees 
is due to late spring frosts. This I deny, and will therefore instance 
some Peach and Nectarine trees I have grown for years in pots. These 
are of course housed during the winter, and stood out again in the open 
after fruiting, consequently last summer their wood was splendidly 
ripened, and a fair but not excessive crop of blossom resulted. Yet, 
though they were protected from the May frosts and other vicissitudes 
of our English climate, they failed to fruit. Obviously well-ripened 
wood does not produce Peaches and Nectarines. 
Further, I will not even acknowledge that ripened wood entails an 
exceptional output of buds. The summer of 1892 was cool, but in the 
spring of 1893 my Apple trees were so covered with buds as to appear 
perfectly red at a little distance when the blooms were just opening. 
This phenomenon was not observable to the same extent last spring. 
At the present moment, too, all trees are showing well with spurs and 
fruit buds, notwithstanding our house had no sun to ripen wood or 
anything else. 
Having already shown it was not news to me “ that a disastrous 
frost occurred late in May ”—indeed, I am fully alive to all meteoro¬ 
logical occurrences—I may in addition tell your correspondent that 
there was nothing very exceptional in this. We had late frosts in 1892 
and 1893 ; in fact, we always have late frosts in this country. Quoting 
from memory I think the usual cold snap came as late as the beginning 
of June last year. No, sir, gardeners have nothing to thank the summer 
of 1893 for. It has left us the legacy of such a crop of insect and 
parasitical pests as I hope we may never see again, and which will take 
years to exterminate. 
In conclusion, I enclose for your inspection some 1891 Pear leaves. 
Most of those in my garden are similarly afiEected ; but as the disease 
appeared almost as soon as the leaves themselves, and long before any 
May frosts, the attack can only be regarded as one result of ripened 
wood. Therefore jjace Mr. Raillem, I must still subscribe myself— 
A Sceptic. 
[We are unable to find either insects or fungi on or in the leaves. 
The small yellow specks manifestly have been the seat of some parasite, 
which has caused the separation of the epidermal tissues ; but it must 
have been some microscopic larvae that left their abode some time ago. 
The brown patches are due to some internal malady, and are not 
caused by parasites—indeed, the mischief appears consonant with that 
of tender tissue acted upon by frost, or a long continuance of cold 
wet weather followed by dryness, the foliage being very thin, and 
indicates a supply of poor food, possibly drawn by deeply seated roots— 
that is, in a cold wet subsoil.] 
ROOT ACTION: ITS EFFECTS ON VEGETATION. 
[Read by Mr. Williams at a Meeting of the Preston and Fulwood Horticultural 
Society.] 
Eveey observer of the vegetable kingdom will, I think, at once 
admit that the principal external features of all plant life are—first, the 
root; secondly, the trunk and branches, or stems; thirdly, the leaves ; 
and fourthly, the flowers and seeds-. In the formation of these Nature 
has many forces in operation. The varying atmospheric conditions and 
changes from summer’s heat to winter’s extreme cold acting and 
re-acting on Mother Earth, keeping in motion the chemical trans¬ 
formations of nutriment to supply the constant demand of the 
multitudinous forms of vegetation. It is a notable fact that variety 
characterises the vegetable kingdom, and yet it is possible to maintain a 
supply to its needs, the study of which constitutes a source of great 
commercial profit, and the dispensing of the numerous compositions of 
soils, manures, water, and air forms the special duties of horticulturists. 
The functions of roots are to hold the plant in position in the soil, to 
absorb through the spongioles the necessary nourishment required by 
the plapt; and scientists tell us that they also throw out of the system 
waste matters which the plant is unable to assimilate. The spongioles 
just alluded to are the extreme points of the roots, and when the plants 
are in a healthy condition are full of activity, taking from the soil the 
elements supplied by the process of decomposition from the effects of 
heat, cold, air, and water, also the action of different products on each 
other, brought about by cultivation in the exposure by digging, trench¬ 
ing, draining, and otherwise manipulating the land, according to the 
knowledge we have of its requirements, for the encouragement of the 
spongioles, or what are more commonly known as fibrous roots. 
In our selection of fruit trees, for instance, we would at once choose 
those trees which have a number of these small roots, recognising them 
as so many food suppliers, and the trees will more readily be given 
support when replanted, as each healthy rootlet, given fair conditions, 
will soon resume its natural work of imbibing food if not for immediate 
use, for storage to meet the strong demands of springtime. For this 
reason the Paradise stock is recommended to graft Apples on when 
early fruitage is desired, the nature of this tree being to root freely and 
keep near the surface, where it is easily influenced by the sun, and by 
whatever manure may be supplied to it. One precaution I would 
suggest in the treatment of all plants that root near the surface, viz. 
that in their summer management when hot and dry seasons prevail, 
these roots should be mulched with short litter of any kind, that the 
spongioles be not contracted by hard-baked soil and rendered unable to 
conduct their work until others are formed, encouraged by a supply of 
water artificial or otherwise; the opposite extreme should also be 
guarded against during the winter season, when hard frosts and biting 
east winds seem to starve and render useless the soft pulpy points or 
feeding portion of the roots. When this weather is anticipated, or any 
time after the foliage has fallen, the surfaee soil may be lightly forked, 
and, if thought necessary, an inch or two of soil may be removed for the 
distance of 2 or 3 feet around the stem of the tree; this soil may be 
replaced on top when 3 or 4 inches of good manure has been laid over 
the roots. This process has the three-fold advantage of protection from 
frost, manuring the deeper roots, and acting as a great encouragement 
for the development of fibrous roots, without which good stout growth 
with abundant fruiting wood, laden with buds, are almost an impossi¬ 
bility ; this principle holds good whenever good plants and trees are 
desired. 
While speaking so strongly in favour of fibrous roots I do not ignore 
the use and purpose of the strong far-reaching roots, pushing and 
tunnelling beneath the surfaee almost regardless of the texture of the 
soil, extending themselves according to the branches above ground, and 
are, in fact, the evident cause of such extension ; cripple or damage the 
root action or withhold the supply of nourishment and growth stands 
still, many of our more tender plants taking a long season to recover 
from its disastrous effects. These strong roots are also the anchorage 
against the wildest gales that sweep with such fury, and, sad to say, play 
havoc amongst our much-prized forest giants, and the growth of 
centuries is laid low with a crash, these unfortunate disasters often 
robbing a beautiful landscape of one of its moat picturesque features, 
are very frequently traceable to failing root action. 
Fehit Trees. 
I will now endeavour to confine my remarks more strictly to our 
garden work, and notice the difference in the quality of our small out¬ 
door fruits when grown with a view to fibrous root encouragement. True 
it is that some persons possess plantations of small fruit trees, and they 
will almost dare to contend that those neglected-looking trees of theirs 
are the most profitable, yet I cannot reasonably believe such to be the 
case. Fruit trees are somewhat like people, they generally respond more 
kindly and profitably to generous treatment, and on the behalf of the 
trees and for the digestion of those persons who are fortunate enough to 
be present at fruit gathering time I recommend that they occasionally 
fork round their fruit trees, adding at the same time either a good dress¬ 
ing of manure or lime. These, given alternately every two or three 
years, will ensure healthy strong trees, with heavy crops of fine plump 
fruit, without any exception to variety—putting in a saving clause for 
the Raspberry, which will do far better without the forking, because of 
its large surface rooting capacity. 
The Raspberry is very impatient under that treatment, the canes, 
by constant mutilation of their roots, gradually weakening, consequently 
becoming unfruitful. An annual top-dressing of manure or other refuse will 
both encourage root-action and protection from extremes of temperature. 
In passing I would suggest to those who have any old orchard trees 
of Apples, Pears, Plums, or Damsons, just try the treatment recommended 
for the Raspberry, and mark its results, for as if endowed with sensi¬ 
bility, young roots will soon be found revelling amidst the new 
material, with the certain result of more nutriment being conveyed to 
the tree, enabling it to produce young and sturdy wood, with a suffi¬ 
ciency of healthy foliage to assimilate and mature the sap, with the 
necessary vigour to carry the crop of fruit to maturity, with the pro¬ 
bability that with this increased vigour the trees will not be so liable 
to disease. The Strawberry is a surface-rooting plant also, and those 
growers whose quarters are well mulehed before the advent of frosts 
and jputting winds will be repaid their energy and forethought with 
superior returns throughout the fruiting season. 
Thus far the cultivation of ordinary outside fruits only have been 
passed under review, but it is equally necessary that the more important 
kinds, such as the Vine, Peach, and Nectarine, should receive every 
consideration to help and encourage those trees, to produce abundant 
rootage to empower them to yield year by year large, luscious, and 
finely coloured fruit. It is often recommended that these indoor grown 
