154 
THE FLORIST. 
teristics of loam, but it lacks some of the essential qualities that would 
entitle it to be called so in a horticultural sense. A few miles further 
on the hills increase in altitude, and the frequent quarries in their sides 
exhibit another character of stone, white, granular, and fossiliferous ; 
this is volitic limestone. The surface soil on these hills is light, calcareous, 
and under high cultivation the soil is rendered loamy in appearance ; 
but, it is, after all, but modified limestone. 
Taking its rise in this hilly country, and gathering together the waters 
of several little brooklets in its passage, a small river at length finds its 
way to the clay valley, through which it has forced a tortuous channel; 
sometimes it is a small quiet stream, almost lost in its deeply-cut bed, 
and at others a roaring rapid current, carrying down particles of lime¬ 
stone and marl stone, and washing up clay, and sand, and vegetable 
debris, its turbid waters then spread over the low lands in the neigh¬ 
bourhood, and on their subsidence there remains the mixed and amal¬ 
gamated particles of the various rocks and soils through which the 
water has passed. These depositions are annual and common to most 
rivers, and rich deposits are thus in course of formation. For countless 
ages this little river has been the noiseless agent in effecting results, 
in their aggregate of great importance. In ancient times floods were 
more extensive, as is evidenced by the depth and extent of the deposits. 
And so, having reviewed and examined the soils peculiar to this locality, 
I counsel my friend to avoid the clay pastures, however temptingly near ; 
not to be tempted by the red, loamy-looking soil, from the marl-stone 
hills, for canker lies hid in it; nor to go to the hills above 
for discoloured lime, but to follow the windings of the little stream 
in the vale, and choosing some old deposit, now high and dry 
and above all modern inundations, and enriched by successive gene¬ 
rations of Lincoln ewes that have pastured and fattened on it; he will 
then find “ a good sound loam.” W. I. 
PRUNING FRUIT TREES. 
The first direction to the pruner will be, obtain a definite and correct 
idea of what you wish to do before you touch a tree. A general vague 
conviction that fruit trees need pruning or thinning out to keep an open 
head, by removing weak and conflicting branches, constitutes the whole 
stock of information, with which most persons commence the yearly 
attack upon the orchard. There is no careful study of the habits and 
peculiarities of each species of tree ; no thought of what each individual 
tree has done in the past, or is expected to do in the future ; whether 
it is prematurely forming fruit buds, or running to wood too luxuriantly; 
no special care for a weak but important shoot which is receiving too 
little nourishment, because a gourmand above it is monopolising all the 
sap and sunlight; no calculation for future years, that the foundation 
now laid shall be the basis of a sufficient number of branches, filling 
advantageously every part of the tree, while none shall crowd or inter¬ 
fere with its neighbours. Generally, young trees are left to themselves, 
and when half grown the top is found to be a thicket of brush. Then 
