324 
THE FLORIST. 
general, be imperfect, and will drop off after expanding. The 
greater part of the blossoms on Apricot and Peach trees last 
spring was imperfect and dropped off. Young trees will, in 
general, bear regularly for some years. When, in the course of 
time, they become covered through neglect with wood and old 
spurs, they only bear a crop every alternate year—one season a 
heavy crop, and the next season none at all. 
About fifty yards from where we are writing there is an apple tree, 
by no means a very large one, from which we had a cart load of 
wood cut out a few years ago ; the fruit has since been much 
finer than before. We have just had gathered forty stone of fine 
fruit from this tree. If spur-pruning were regularly carried out 
on orchard and garden trees, we should not so continually be 
healing of the failure of our fruit crops. And not only should we 
have crops more regularly, but the fruit would be much finer also. 
It is neglect of trimming, and pruning, and over-bearing, which 
has so enfeebled the constitution of the Golden and Pibston 
Pippin apples, and other fruits ; and the propagation from a de¬ 
bilitated stock that has led to the fallacy that such sorts were fast 
wearing out. To us it is no wonder that these trees should be 
dying out under such bad management as they are generally sub¬ 
jected to. The wonder is that there should be found any healthy 
trees of these kinds in the country. All trees that have been any 
way neglected should at once be gone over. The centre of the 
trees should be well cleared out, and all shoots when crowded 
should be well thinned; this done, the shoots should then be care¬ 
fully spur-pruned, leaving the best buds. The result will be next 
year a crop of fruit much superior in size and quality to what has 
been produced for years. 
Stour ton, Yorhshb'e. M. Saul. 
PRIMULA SINENSIS FIMBPvIATA. 
This useful plant is seldom seen to the perfection it should be, as 
there are very few winter flowering plants that can be had in 
flower for four or five months with so little trouble as the Primula. 
It is both adapted for cutting from, or a display in the conservatory. 
A few words on cultivation might be interesting to some of your 
correspondents, if you think it worth a space in your valuable paper. 
I begin with sowing the seed, I think, earlier than it is generally 
sown, about the first week in March. I sow in pots and place 
them in a cucumber frame, or any other warm place. As soon as 
the plants are up and large enough to transplant I prick them out 
into shallow pans, keeping them close and warm till they get 
established, when I put them in a cold pit where they remain till 
about the middle of May, when I })ot them off into 3-inch pots, 
and place them in a cold frame under a north wall. The soil I 
use is about two-thirds rich turfy loam, and one-third equal })arts 
well-decayed manure and leaf-soil, with silver sand enough to 
keep the soil open. I use the soil in a dry state, pressing it in as 
