THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[August 21. 
810 
case of our hardy fruits in former years, when we might 
very frequently meet with peaches, nectarines, and 
apricots, in the months of July and August, almost 
smothered with raw-looking spray, and looking more 
like privet-bushes in the shrubbery than tender fruit- 
trees ; it is no marvel that some fresh step should be 
taken—some departure from the then existing practice. 
Let us here repeat, that a thorough ripening of the 
wood is alone the foundation of successful fruit culture. 
Even such hardy things as gooseberries and currants 
are amenable to this principle, which, in giving extra 
solidity to the parts, gives at the same time fructifying 
powers. It is needless here to urge that sunlight is the 
chiet agent in this process: all seem to admit the fact, 
yet few carry it thoroughly out in practice. Now, if 
sunlight, by shining uninterruptedly on the foliage, is 
productive of fruitful habits, it is plain that all un¬ 
necessary obstructions should be removed in due time, 
whilst the tree is in full possession of its elaborative 
powers. 
It is here necessaiy, for the sake of the learner, to 
make a distinction as to the character of the foliage, 
which in most fruits, and as applied to the case in hand, 
is divisible iuto two classes, viz., that in immediate con¬ 
nexion with the embryo fruit spurs, and that which is 
simply the result of an effort to enlarge the system of 
the tree. The one, it may be presumed, has a direct and 
immediate office to perform, the other an indirect, and, in 
many cases, a remote one. These things ought not to 
be confounded; it is only by a proper classification of 
the functions of a tree in the “ mind’s eye,” that distinct 
and accurate views of the somewhat latent processes of 
Nature can be obtained. Thus much as preliminary 
to a few remarks on the practice termed “ stopping.” 
Stopping is, or should be, practised for the following 
purposes:— 
1st—To check gross shoots. 
2d—To admit light. 
dd—To check root action. 
Jth—To concentrate the energies of the tree. 
5th—To ripen the wood. 
To which may be added, stopping for the extirpation 
of insects. This, however, is done more on expedient 
than on principle. The No. 1 procedure is principally 
exercised soon after the trees begin to sboot in spring; 
the effect of this is, forthwith to equalise the distribution 
of the ascending sap. No. 2 is practised at a more ad¬ 
vanced period, generally after the disbudding is com¬ 
pleted. We use it as a preliminary step to the total 
removal of superfluous spray. No. 8 is a consequence 
involved in the No. 2 procedure. It may be taken, we 
think, as a maxim, that as the branches are in point of 
rapid development, so the root-action is, or soon will be. 
I here are, of course, some trifling exceptions to this, 
but such will in general be found the true bearing of 
the question. Of course, whore trees are already too 
weak, such an operation would be folly; trees of this 
character, however, seldom produce too many shoots. 
No. 4. That the stopping of fruit-bearing shoots at a 
certain period has a tendency to concentrate the fruit- 
iul energies of the tree in the vicinity of the fruit, we 
think few will be hardy enough to doubt, it is on this 
principle that the vine-dresser proceeds, and he has not 
only the present in his eye, but the perfect maturation of 
those buds on which the future year's crop depends. In 
like manner, as steady growth, or one of an almost 
stationary character, tends to concentration, so a rapid 
growth tends to dispersion—such dispersion and concen¬ 
tration having a close bearing on the returning or ela¬ 
borated sap. Thus if the problem were in a vine, how 
to grow a, thick stem in a short }>eriod, every shoot 
should be trained in during the growing season ; but if 
the finest fruit and a fruitful habit for the next year, 
vice versa. No. 5. Ripening the wood is, it may be con¬ 
sidered, a consequence of the No. 4 proceeding, and is 
an all-important affair; indeed, so much so, in our 
estimation, that at the risk of being tedious, we have 
thus again gone over the old ground of stopping, &c. 
The complaints of failure in our finer fruits this sea¬ 
son, are loud and well-nigh universal. Some lay it to 
unusually late frosts, others to the prevalence of cold 
winds, and some to that indescribable tiling—a bligbt. 
Some have seized this opportunity to turn the tables, as 
they conceive, against the protectionists, not of corn, 
but of blossoms. Some gentlemen whom we have 
chatted with on the subject, have waxed very cross 
indeed, declaring stoutly against protection of every 
kind, as being against nature ! The latter argument is 
tally amusing. What can such gentlemen say to 
blanching a head of celery, taking a sea-side plant 
(sea-kale) from the cold bed, and putting it in a dung 
bed ; striking boughs for shelter amongst gooseberry 
bushes, &c., &c. This we know, that we have protected 
more by double this spring than ever before, and never 
before had we such a vast profusion of hardy fruits; 
and as to wall-peaches and nectarines, nothing can 
possibly excel them at the present moment. This 
would not have been repeated, as it may appear an invi¬ 
dious and uninvited comparison ; but it is necessary to 
the purpose in hand; and, moreover, The Cottage 
Gardener has been, in some degree, a champion of the 
blossom protection question. As to frosts, at the time 
the country was complaining of the untowardness of 
the spring, almost from the Land’s End to Johnny 
Groats, we also experienced all sorts of weather but the 
right. Indeed, bow the blossoms escaped, is still a 
matter of astonishment, much as we presumed on a 
thorough ripening of the wood of fruit-trees, a principle 
here made what bilious folks might term, a hard-ridden- 
hobby. Now, all this circumlocution brings us to our 
text—the ripening of the wood; and this is the very 
time to urge that the last effort shall be made; it 
is now r the eleventh hour as to man’s interference. Let 
our country cousins say what they may, and be as 
cross as they like, they have never, in our opinion, 
fully appreciated this one fundamental principle. ’They 
have much to do yet; they need a clear light to travel 
by; and we trust that The Cottage Gardener will 
not prove an ignis fatuus in this respect; it has not 
been, hitherto, pointedly accused of being so. Still, 
shine the sun ever so brightly, he shines in vain, unless 
we open our eyes. Be assured good friends, then, 
that the question of covering and non-covering; of do 
this, and let alone that, all sink into comparative insig¬ 
nificance beside the great question of wood ripening. 
The neglect of this is productive of a variety of ano¬ 
malies—hence bad setting, casting blossoms, a double 
amount of susceptibility to the late spring frosts, defects 
in the sexual character of the blossoms, imperfect deve¬ 
lopment, premature casting of blossom, and such like. 
Such form a portion of the catalogue of evils which each 
returning spring presents; a pretty bill of fare truly, 
and mostly, we may add, “ standing dishes.” 
We do not pretend to say that a timely attention to 
stopping, thinning, &c., will alone produce a perfect con¬ 
dition of wood, although a most powerful auxiliary. A 
proper condition of root-culture must be carried out in 
connexion with it; above all, avoiding very deep soils, j 
Where soils are both deep and damp, it scarcely 
matters what the system pursued is, with regard to j 
pruning, training, &c., after all the pains possible, the ' 
production of fruit will ever be on a precarious footing, j 
if, indeed, a crop can ever be produced. 
Let us now beg to call the special attention of the [ 
readers of this work to the last stopping of this year; 
one which will combine the results to be expected from , 
Nos. 2, 4, 5, in particular, and which, indeed, will tend 
in no small degree to a further equalisation of the sap in j 
