OCTOBER. 
313 
ROOT PRUNING AND TRANSPLANTING. 
As the season has now arrived when the above points in cultivation 
will engage attention, it may not be out of place to notice the prin¬ 
ciples involved in root pruning and transplanting, for the purpose of 
inducing fruitfulness in trees. That the vegetable kingdom is governed 
by certain laws, affecting the reproduction of each particular species, is 
well known to cultivators, and there is some resemblance in reference to 
this function of plants to that of the animal kingdom—where an excess 
of feeding is as much opposed to fecundity as a gross growing fruit tree 
is to fruitfulness. Now the great art of the fruit grower is to manage 
his trees that while they possess sufficient vigour to produce fruit of the 
highest excellence, they shall not overgrow that limit, beyond which 
the growth they make must be at the expense of the fruit. This nicely 
balanced state is, however, neither easily attained nor retained, and 
requires care and judgment in curtailing or increasing the supply of 
food to each plant to produce the desired effect. 
There are some soils so well suited to grow particular kinds of fruits 
that but little or no difficulty is experienced in keeping trees fruitful, 
when once they commence bearing. On the contrary, there are soils 
naturally too rich for fruit trees, particularly for what may be termed 
exotic trees, i.e., trees natives of a warmer climate than our own, and 
here the gardener’s judgment has to be called upon to regulate the 
growth of his trees to the climate in which they grow. Again, as most 
of our fruit trees have to be either grafted or budded on some kind of 
stock, which may be, and indeed often is, hardier and more vigorous 
than the kind of tree worked upon it, it follows that an additional 
stimulant to excessive growth is given through this agency, which when 
combined with rich borders and a damp climate, produces what all 
gardeners deplore, trees rank growing and unfruitful, and as a sequel 
—short lived. 
The means and method of counteracting this evil are numerous 
indeed—poor soil, shallow borders, lifting, or transplanting, and root 
pruning—annually or biennially—have all their advocates and admirers. 
A change of stock also has been insisted on with some kinds of fruits 
as a sure means of checking rude growth, and inducing fruitfulness. 
All and each of these plans are good in their way ; the point to know 
is which is best for the case you may have in hand—when to apply 
the remedy, and how to follow it up ; for most assuredly if we com¬ 
mence with a very artificial system of treatment, the plant will be more 
dependant on the future watchfulness of the cultivator, than when it 
has been left more to itself. To lay down general rules applicable to 
cases of overgrowth or barrenness in fruit trees is almost impossible; 
they will be subject to contingencies, which no writer can calculate on 
with certainty ; for instance, some parts of England are much drier 
and warmer than others, some exposures are much better suited than 
others for maturing the wood of fruit trees, and some soils are more reten¬ 
tive of moisture than others ; added to which, the vigour and hardiness of 
particular kinds of the same fruit differ much, and are influenced by the 
