January 29. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
bloomed it, having lmd, I may say, hundreds of blooms upon 
it, and then I had to prune it, so that the follow ing year it 
was not quite so good, but then I had many beautiful blooms 
on it. 
My plant is upon a Dog-rose stock, it stands against a west 
wall, has a space quite to itself, and covered (till I reduced 
it a little) about half the side of my house; it never had 
any protection of any kind, it has a barrow load of manure and 
ashes, or manure and loam, every year given to it; and the. 
subsoil is sand. The only complaint I have to make is one 
common to that sort of rose—viz., that wherever an old shoot 
is cut, thence start the best blooming shoots, and I have, 
therefore, had my best Solfaterre rose blooms near the bed¬ 
room windows. This winter seems likely to try my roses, 
but I have no fears for my Solfaterre , or Cloth of Gold either. 
Let Mr. Beaton try Solfaterre, not on its own roots (perhaps 
his plant is thus grown); let him venture it without glass, 
prune it pretty severely, give it a good drenching just when 
coming into bloom, and 1 am much mistaken if he will not 
yet write an article advising every one to buy it. I have 
budded Solfaterre on Bengal Florida, on Celine, and on 
I’arabere, the Parabere being itself budded on a Dog-rose. 
The Parabere one was on a trellis fully exposed to the east; 
that bud, after blooming well one year, was cut off by the 
winter.” 
REST-PRUNING. 
(Continued from page 190.) 
The Apple. —Although the apple not unfrequently 
bears on the young wood, yet it is easy to distinguish 
wood of this character, or we dare not advise its pruning 
until a more advanced period. This fruit is grown 
under a variety of characters as to habit, but it will 
suffice for practical purposes to suggest three classes, 
viz.; the ordinary orchard standard, the dwarf standard 
of the kitchen-garden, and the trained espalier. 
Orchard Apples. —It is by no means uncommon to 
meet with huge trees, in country orchards, completely 
choked, with not only useless, but injurious, spray. In¬ 
jurious, because in bearing, the fruit possesses little 
quality or appearance, and only serves to detract from 
the character of the truly good and useful fruit, situated 
at the exterior portions of the tree. Now, it must not 
be understood that the interior wood must be entirely re¬ 
moved ; for it sometimes so happens, through peculiarity 
of some seasons, that the interior portions alone produce 
much fruit; this, however, is the exception to the rule. 
In the case of very old and hard-worn trees, we would 
entirely remove such spray, for when such trees become 
nearly exhausted, their last efforts are generally directed 
to a few of the extreme points on the stoutest branches, 
and it becomes a prudential proceeding to decoy the last 
and expiring efforts to that quarter. As for cutting 
back into the thick timber trees already exhausted with 
age and bearing, or corrupted with canker and other 
diseases, we have no faith in the practice; they generally 
return to their barren condition the moment the young 
twigs begin to bear fruit. We have known several 
gardeners, since our younger days, thus operate on the 
old trees in the margins of the kitchen-garden, the 
trees of course making flourishing young shoots in con¬ 
sequence; the operators wordd speedily chuckle over the 
glorious prospects in store, of a renewed garden in little 
time—but, as before observed, such appearances have 
ever proved fallacious in the majority of cases, as, 
indeed, might well be expected. Certainly, cases may 
occur, in which trees naturally healthy, and by no 
means exhausted, have yet attained a “leggy” or lean 
appearance, through bad training or bad management 
originally ; such, indeed, may constitute legitimate sub¬ 
jects for the operation : but whatever may be done this 
way as to orchard trees, we cannot advise the cutting 
close back the dwarfs of the kitchen-garden, unless it he 
for the insertion of grafts of particular kinds. Such 
207 
can seldom compete with nice young trees on the 
Paradise stock, or which had undergone a preparatory 
course of root pruning on the free stock, which latter 
practice we should prefer. 
In pruning orchard trees, then, the operator has to 
survey his tree with a critical eye; not to “ lump ” the 
whole orchard, but to study each tree individually as he 
commences operations. The tree may be inclined to 
canker, or to die away at the points ; it may be wearing 
away with long service; it may be in perfection, both as 
to health and stature; or it may be a young tree not 
long introduced. Each of these require a difference in 
pruning; if not in mode, at least in degree. Cankering 
subjects are difficult to deal with; as for a thorough 
cure, it is in vain to think of it in the case of old trees: 
but it is by no means expedient at all times to destroy 
such subjects, even when showing marks of considerable 
decrepitude. If such were to be practised, three-fourths 
of the Ribston Pippins in the kingdom would fall; for 
how seldom do we see one of those entirely free from 
canker, or dying points ; yet they continue to bear, and 
h'uit too, and we can even now ill afford to spare them. 
Whilst, then, such trees continue to produce a consider¬ 
able amount of useful fruit, our advice is, destroy not, 
but rather introduce extra plants as successors. In 
pruning cankered trees, little more can be done than 
removing the diseased portions, as soon as the gangrene 
has paralysed the energies of such parts. They seldom 
make much wood; if they do, it is not unfrequently 
spray in the interior of the tree, which is merely an 
effort to restore the shattered constitution. Instead of 
hopelessly cutting the older branches back to such 
watery spray in the hopes of a renewal, it is generally 
best to remove most of it, for it only interrupts and 
appropriates the ascending sap, to the detriment of the 
established branches. Where the tree is valuable, of 
some size, and the branches cankered, it is well to scrape 
out some of the cankered cavities, and to till them with 
a mixture of cow-dung and lime, like grafting clay, 
binding it on with a piece of old carpeting or other 
fabric. This, by excluding the air and wet, will enable 
the tree to form some valuable new bark. 
Trees in their prime will not need pruning oftener 
than alternate years; this refers, of course, to healthy 
trees. Their pruning will consist in progressively re¬ 
moving interior portions and cross branches, which, 
however proper to be retained in the earlier stages, 
should at last give way; inasmuch as through the in¬ 
creasing volume of the tree, such parts, although ori¬ 
ginally enjoying a fair share of light, become, at last, 
immured in a kind of gloom, tending to infertility. 
Here, again, young and immature spray produced on 
the main branches in a position where they can ulti¬ 
mately be of no real service, should be pruned away. 
If the trees are lean of branches, and what gardeners 
term leggy, shortening back may occasionally be re¬ 
sorted to, for the purpose of inducing an ample supply 
of shoots wherewith to complete the full structure of the 
tree. Be it here remembered that all this advice refers 
to orchard trees, with which we have not yet quite 
finished. Young orchard trees will require little 
pruning, a slight thinning in the young wood if 
crowded, and shortening back very long twigs, is all 
that is requisite. If the heads are lean, and badly 
furnished, shortening must be practised occasionally, in 
order to get them well furnished. 
Ivitciien-Gaiiden Apples. —We come now to dwarf 
standards, or what may be termed bush-apples, and 
those under various forms of training, and here we 
have no essential difference in principle. The chief 
feature to point to, is the necessity for more shortening 
back in the young twigs than in ordinary standard 
trees. Some twenty year’s since, before we bad dis¬ 
covered the merits, and commenced systematically the 
