JUNE. 
133 
teen years. These trees are so enfeebled that it is not possible to bring them 
into a vigorous condition. There are also some other old trees not quite so 
enfeebled, which also only bore a crop of fruit every alternate season, until 
some years back they were severely pruned, having not only a great deal of 
wood taken out of them, but the spurs on the remaining branches well thinned- 
out also. Since that time these trees bear fruit every season. Besides these, 
there are a number of younger trees of both Pears and Apples. I bestow some 
considerable labour on these trees, especially in thinning well and shortening 
the spurs, and with the most satisfactory results, as they rarely fail having a 
crop of fruit, and generally very fine. We have had every possible sort of 
weather the last sixteen years, and yet I can say that the out-door crops here 
have not, during that time, been a complete failure once. When I say out¬ 
door crops, I, of course, include wall Pears and Apples, Peaches, Nectarines, 
Apricots, Plums, Cherries, and bush fruit of all kinds. I have always delighted 
in fruit culture, and have given the subject much thought; and I have long 
been convinced that, with proper management, it is quite possible to get 
moderate crops of fine fruit out of doors nine seasons out of ten, notwith¬ 
standing the changeableness of our climate. 
To grow fruit successfully the soil and situation must be suitable. If these 
be of satisfactory nature, then the following essentials must be attended to :-r- 
1st, The selection of kinds suitable to the locality; 2nd, The timely and 
proper pruning of the wood and spurs ; 3rd, Never to overcrop. 
1st. The Selection of Kinds Suitable to the Locality. —It is always a safe 
plan, when planting largely, to plant most of those sorts that are known to do 
'well in that particular locality, and fewer of such kinds as have not been 
proved in that place. In places near together the soil oftentimes is so different 
that kinds which succeed on the one w T ill fail on the other. We have all very 
much to learn as yet on this subject; indeed it is one which the Boyal Hor¬ 
ticultural Society should energetically take up. 
2nd. The Timely and Proper Thinning of the Wood and Spurs. —All trees 
require going over in summer and winter, but if the summer pruning be well 
carried out, there will not be much pruning required in winter. Such fruit 
trees as the Peach and Nectarine, that bear on the young w r ood, require their 
shoots to be all disbudded, shortened where there is fruit, and removed 
altogether where there is none, save the terminal one and one at the base of 
the shoot. It is better to have the shoots rather too few than too many. 
When sufficiently long the young shoots should be either nailed or tied in 
to the wall. All fruit trees that bear on spurs, as Pears, Apples, Apricots, 
Plums, Cherries, &c., should be gone over twice or thrice during the summer; 
the first time early in June, when the ends of the young shoots should be 
nipped off. They must not on any account be nipped too close, as it would 
cause the other buds to break. Early in July, when all danger of the buds 
breaking is past, the young shoots should all be cut clean off. The winter 
pruning may be done any time from October to March inclusive, when the 
wood is not frozen. It is not advisable to prune in frosty weather. Peach and 
Nectarine trees should have the wood that bore the fruit cut out, the young 
shoots shortened according to their strength, and be washed with mixture of 
soft soap, sulphur, and soot, made to the consistency of paint by water, and 
then neatly nailed. All spur-bearing trees on w r alls will require going over. 
Being trained trees they will require no branches removing; but the spurs 
should be well thinned, always retaining those with plump buds near the stem. 
Spur-pruning, if properly done, can hardly be overdone : nine-tenths of the 
trees in the country are ruined by having too many spurs. If people would 
only think what an important organ the leaf of a plant is, and how essential 
