310 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, August 17, 1858. 
will be long before you get any abundance of well- 
flavoured fruit. Fruit at all will only be forthcoming 
after bright, dry summers, and favourable autumns, 
or when the signs of age appear. Here is another, 
espalier or standard, it matters not which ; the leading 
shoots may be from eighteen inches, and the side 
shoots some six or more, in length. The roots have 
never directly come in contact with manure, and the 
deepest are little more than fifteen inches from the 
surface,—many of the roots not half that depth ; and 
stopping some shoots, and thinning out others, is at¬ 
tended with a certain production of fruit-buds. Look 
at two Vines in these relative circumstances,—and 
you find the one_ with vigorous wood, leaves like 
parasols, bunches few and disproportionate, and poor 
as to flavour ; while in the other case you will have an 
excess of fertility, leaves very small in comparison, 
and berries, though perhaps not so large, well stored 
with sweet saccharine matter. 
Before you can depend on the hints as to stopping, 
cursorily given at page 151, you must form an idea of 
the condition and depth of the roots of the trees. I 
have referred to trees near Winchester, in a fine healthy 
state, the points of the shoots of which had been 
stopped to concentrate vigour and solar influence on 
the lower buds. Since then I have been informed, 
that these bush standards are loaded with fruit this 
season, down to the very stem. The situation is very 
exposed ; the soil, light loam, two feet deep, resting on 
solid chalk. In neither Apples nor Pears is there 
any symptom of canker. Among Apples are— Golden 
Pippin (loaded), Nonpareil, Oslin, Stunner Pippin 
(which keeps nearly till Apples come again), Marqils, 
and others of the very best kinds ; while among Pears 
were— Seeled , Dunmore, ReurrS Ranee, Raster Reurre, 
Forelle, Glout Morceau, Winter Nells, &c. To en- 
sui e this early and abundant cropping, these trees 
seemed to hai e had little of the knife. The stopping 
of the shoots must have formed the chief part of 
pruning, and I suspect that very little rank manure was 
incorporated with the lower strata of soil. Canker is 
such an inscrutable evil, that I am disposed to imitate 
some of my friends, and in future to plant only those 
kinds that position seems to suit. 
Our “ Constant Reader ” may now have an idea 
that something besides pruning may be necessary for 
a Pear or Apple tree, that has been planted six 
years against a wall, has ten nice horizontal shoots on 
each side, plenty of summer shoots along these hori¬ 
zontal shoots, but, as yet, no flownr-buds. If these 
shoots were not above from nine to fourteen inches 
ui length, first stopping them in June, breaking 
tnem half through three inches from their base, and 
letting them hang down in July, and removing them 
altogether in the middle of August, would have a 
tendency to swell the lower buds, and render them 
fertile ; but if the shoots are not merely numerous, 
but strong and long, then, in addition to the above, I 
would recommend either shortening the roots, or, 
better still, lifting, and replanting them nearer the 
surface. 
If placed in pure loam, it will be all in their favour, 
it done early m October, the leaves left should be 
tvept from flagging by syringing and shading, but not 
a bit more than will secure that object. There would 
tbus be a chance for a few fruit-buds the following 
season, and a good supply in the second. 
I eople iised to talk of planting Pears for their 
children. By looking to the roots we may have fruit 
m tw o or three years after planting. 
ntwl-? ay i b ? a few words necessar y as respects 
the rnnfQ t8 ’-li mt .-T re P mnm g’ without attention to 
loots, will not be over-successful in any case. 
R. Fish. 
VEGETABLE CROPS 
UNDER OVERHANGING FRUIT TREES. 
To the gentleman, gardener, or one who cultivates 
a large space of ground, it has often been a source of 
much surprise, how a cottager manages to obtain such 
fair crops of vegetables underneath large, overhanging, 
fruit trees, which often crow d together in such numbers 
as to shade the whole of his garden. The usually 
received maxims of successful cultivation require sun, 
air, and an unexhausted soil: the two first of these 
conditions the cottager cannot command, when his 
Apple, or other fruit trees, hang within four or five 
feet of the ground, so that he has only the last con¬ 
dition, the soil, to w ork upon; but, in some cases, his 
assiduity accomplishes much in this wmy, and tolerable 
crops of Potatoes, Parsnips, Carrots, and other things, 
are the result: the Cabbage tribe and Scarlet Runners 
require more sun. The secret of success in this case, 
as well as in many others, does not lie in one great 
effort, but in continuous applications. A large appli¬ 
cation of manure, either in the solid or liquid state, 
w ill not command success, as the trees w ill absorb it 
all ; but a frequent feeding w ith weak, diluted manure 
water is relished, and duly made use of by the surface 
crop, which continues to grow and perfect itself under 
this artificial treatment ; while the fruit crop does not 
seem to derive so much injury, as is generally the case 
when a vegetable crop has to struggle with it for the 
uses of the ground on w hich they are both planted. 
V hereas, by the cottager s plan, of dealing out every 
c\ cuing, or nearly so, a certain quantity of sewage, the 
surface crop has more the resemblance of a quantity 
of potted plants standing on the ground, and daily 
replenished with liquid food in the usual way. This as¬ 
siduous care on the part of the cottager, enables him to 
reap more from his lrttleplot of ground than any other 
class of cultivators ; while, to the industrious man, the 
labour of supplying the necessary food is amply repaid 
by the pleasure he feels in having his garden so well 
stocked, independent of the uses of the articles 
grown. 
Now, the question which the utilitarian will be asking 
on this matter is likely to be,—Will the general culti¬ 
vation < of all ground underneath fruit trees pay on 
this principle. This, like many others, is a very diffi- 
cult question to answer, so much depends on the value 
that may be put on each article grown. Where things 
aie giovi li expressly for the London and other markets, 
and are only expected to realise the usual wdiolesale 
maiket puces, and labour, rent, and the other charges, 
common on such things, have to be paid for, it will be 
found most advisable to grow only “one crop on the 
ground at a time, and to do it well; for, truthful as the 
theoiy may be, ^ . that it is impossible to do too much 
or the giound, it rarely can be carried out in practice 
with a profitable result. I know a fruit grower who 
oifly iealized 2s. 6d. a bushel on good Jargonelle Pears, 
while Apples scarcely paid for the gathering. These 
puces, it is needless to say, leave but little margin 
for the fruit grower to expend much capital in cul¬ 
tivating his ground for any experimental purpose, 
when the price of vegetables is not much better then 
that of fruit. The object is not to raise the greatest 
possible quantity from a certain plot of ground, but to 
obtain as large a quantity of useful good things at the 
least possible expense; for when an article costs 
moie to produce it than it will fetch in the market of 
the world, it ceases to interest the producer, in spite of 
all that political economists can say to the contrary. 
Although the cottager, by dint of labour at his over¬ 
hours, may obtain Lettuce and other things for his own 
table underneath his Apple trees, he could not obtain 
a livelihood by employing his time solely in such oc- 
