May 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
55 
a few days.* All plants, therefore, should bo in¬ 
stantly removed from a vinery in which the disease 
makes its appearance. Every diseased leaf, and all 
the refuse from the infected vinery, should be burnt. 
It is but just to observe, that the first public no¬ 
tice taken of this disease was by a very intelligent 
writer from the neighbourhood of Margate, whose 
letter, signed “ Progressionist,” appeared in the Gar¬ 
deners Journal in October, 1847. After very cor¬ 
rectly pointing out the parasitical nature of the 
disease, and stating that it visited Ids vinery during 
the two previous years, he observes, upon its more 
advanced state, that its effects upon the fruit are to 
produce a swelling and a cracking, accompanied by 
a very strong disagreeable smell, and ending in the 
grapes becoming a mass of rottenness. Another ob¬ 
server describes the smell as being like that of old, 
mouldy, decayed wood. 
* The same fungus has been found upon cinerarias.— Gard. Jour¬ 
nal, 1847, 212. 
THE FRUIT-GARDEN. 
Stopping and Disbudding. —We have now arrived 
at that period when the most vigilant attention is 
necessary, not only with one kind of fruit, but with 
most of those we cultivate. The course we are 
about to recommend is not only requisite as tending 
to improve the character of the fruit in the present 
season, but the welfare and stability of the tree in 
succeeding years. Although, at first sight, the pro¬ 
cess may appear troublesome or expensive, it is, in 
reality, an economical procedure in the end. A 
trained tree, started from the first on good principles, 
both as regards root and branch, will, after a three 
years’ course, not require above half the labour which 
will have to be bestowed upon one planted and 
trained without system. Nor is this all ; for the 
neglected tree will soon become absolutely uncon¬ 
trollable, or only to be controlled at the sacrifice of a 
large portion of valuable branches, which had taken 
years to form. Thus, it will be easily seen where 
the economy of the subject really rests. In addition 
to disbudding at this period (the principles of which 
we discussed in a previous Number), we have now to 
point to, and explain, the principles of what is 
termed, by gardeners, “ stopping,” and, by some 
amatem-s and others, “ pinching.” Stopping or 
pinching, however, is capable of classification. 
Stopping is practised, in general, for one or other 
of the following reasons, or for any two or more of 
them in combination. First, to check over-luxuriant 
shoots. Secondly, to concentrate the sap in a given 
shoot. Thirdly, to give room to other competing 
shoots. Fourthly, to check a too late root action. 
Our business, in this calendar, will be to deal with 
the first, as being peculiarly appropriate to the sea¬ 
son. 
The Peach and Nectarine. —After a slight disbud¬ 
ding, it will be found, on examining healthy peach or 
nectarine trees, that certain gross-looking shoots 
thrust themselves forth from various portions of the 
tree, more especially from young and over-excited 
subjects. This case is, in general, caused by close 
pruning, which has become necessary in order to 
compel the rising tree so to throw out branches as 
that provision may be made for every portion of the 
wall being covered in a permanent and, of course, 
profitable way. Such young trees possess, in gene¬ 
ral, a violent root action; and by removing young 
shoots which would have constituted legitimate 
channels for the sap, the root becomes master of the 
branches ; or, in other words, the balance which na¬ 
ture had provided is temporarily destroyed. We 
very frequently, notwithstanding, find older and 
bearing trees producing these gross shoots; these 
are called by some gardeners, “ watery wood,” and 
by the French gardeners, “ gourmands” (gluttons). 
They may be found on bearing trees, as before ob¬ 
served, as well as on younger ones; and this may, at 
first sight, appear strange; for it might be consi¬ 
dered that the bearing propensities of the other trees 
would prevent such an occurrence. It is, however, 
we believe, neither more nor less than one of those 
efforts of nature, which may be frequently observed 
in other subjects besides the peach—an extra effort 
to prevent premature decay. Such shoots very often 
spring forth just below a branch which has borne a 
heavy crop of fruit, and which has thereby become 
somewhat exhausted; in which case there can be 
little doubt that some degree of constriction, or par¬ 
tial shrinking of the vessels, has taken place. These 
gluttons, then, if suffered to remain unstopped, will, 
in most cases, cut away the supplies from the old 
bearing shoots, and lead to the necessity of their 
being cut off’ in a very short period: a process 
fraught with danger to the stability of the tree, and 
which, in all cases, may be prevented by the antici¬ 
patory course we are about to recommend. 
To revert to the case of young peach-trees: how 
often do we see them with shoots some 3 or 4 feet 
long in the beginning of autumn ; and of what use is 
this amazing length of “ rod ?” The tree, too, it may 
be, has only four or five such; and if the proprietor 
asks an opinion of a practical pruner, his advice is, 
especially if he be “ one of the olden time,” to cut 
them all back to two or three eyes. The proprietor, 
of course, wonders how his wall is to be covered by 
such a procedure. He is, however, told that it must 
be so; and as he is not usually armed with argu¬ 
ments to withstand blue-apron authority, he deems 
it expedient to give way. Without stopping to in¬ 
quire whether all, or only a portion, of such willow¬ 
looking rods should be cut back in such 
a case, we may just draw attention to 
what this tree might have been under 
proper culture. We subjoin a diagram, 
which will, after a minute’s considera¬ 
tion, illustrate the matter. 
A, shews the gross young peach or 
nectarine in October, having rambled 
unstopped through the summer. B, 
— __ shews what the same would be in Octo¬ 
ber, if stopped in May. The cross 
marks denote the points at which it 
—-- would become necessary to prune them 
in the succeeding winter. 
