THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, April 24. 1300. 55 
FOOTMARKS ON SPERGULA PILIFERA. 
I HAVE been told by a gentleman who has seen the Spergula 
pilifera, that if walked upon in frosty weather, every footmark 
is, and remains, visible. Do you know if this is so, as it may be 
much against its general utility ?—W. H, B, 
[The footmarks will show on Spergula as they would on grass, 
but no more, till such time as the young growth appears.] 
THE SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 
{Continuedfrom page 25.) 
To promote the production of blossoms, and the maturity of 
the fruit they engender, is the usual object of stopping, pruning, 
and training—confessedly three of the practices requiring most 
judgment in the gardener’s art; for if the branches are too 
much reduced in length or number, or are unfavourably trained, 
the development of leaves is induced, and the production of 
blossom as proportionately prevented. The reason for this has 
already been explained ; and in these pages, devoted to the science 
ratljer than the practice of gardening, little more can be added 
than a few hints upon the subject. 
Stopping is the practice of removing a part of the leading end 
of a shoot during the season of the plant’s growth, and pinching 
is merely destroying during the same season the leading bud. 
Both practices are performed by the finger and thumb. 
It is not to make a fruit tree more bushy that we stop the 
robbers, as we call the strongest shoots, but to stop the current 
of the sap, and so force it into the weaker branches, which are 
seldom stopped at all. When it is necessary to stop all the shoots 
on a plant, the weakest ought to be first stopped, in order to get 
them stronger, and is easily shown on a common Laurel. Take a 
branch during June with two young shoots—the one very strong, 
and the other a weak one ; stop the weak one, and allow it to 
push two or three eyes into leaf; then stop the strong one, and 
before it can break again, the shoots on the weak one are grown, 
and able to draw on the sap more than those which are merely 
breaking bud on the stronger shoot. Then, suppose we leave 
only two shoots to come from the weaker parent, and four or five 
shoots on the stronger, the balance of strength is restored in a 
' month, and you have six shoots of equal, or nearly equal, 
strength ; but if you stop the strongest first, and allow it to break 
into three or four fresh ones before you stop the weak shoot, these 
three or four having the start of whatever the weakest shoot will 
give out, they will keep a-head to the end of the season, if they 
do not starve the weaker and later shoots altogether. If we could 
stop the growth of the strong shoot till such time as the weak 
shoot was nearly as strong as the first, and then let them both 
go on equal terms, all would go on well: but we cannot stop 
growth one moment in the growing season—the right season for 
stopping ; for as soon as we “ top ” a shoot, if only by breaking 
a bud, the next buds below will yield to the force of the rising 
fluid or sap immediately, and many of the summer practices are 
founded on this knowledge ; as, for instance, a Rose-bud of last 
autumn is now a one-shoot plant, and very apt to be blown over 
by the wind or other force; but stop it at the top, and out it 
branches in ten days, and will soon make a compact round head. 
Those who neglect to take advantage of this, may get one shoot 
from a bud up to three feet in length ; but what is the good of 
that ? they must be cut down to four or five eyes next winter ; 
and it will be next year before a head can be had. Almost all 
nurserymen spoil, or lay down the foundation for the ruin of 
Peach and Apricot trees, by leaving the original bud to form one 
gross shoot the first year, instead of stopping it when it is nine 
or ten inches long, and take five shoots from the next start for 
wall trees, and four shoots only, and of equal strength, for pots 
and orchard-house work. 
We pinch and stop the shoots of our fruit trees in June, and 
throughout the summer, whether they are grown against a wall, 
or as dwarf standards. We take off one-third of a weak shoot, 
only one-fourth if of average strength, and merely the point if it 
be strong. The upper bud on each usually breaks again, but this 
is of no consequence, and we stop these secondary shoots by 
breaking them off entirely. This stopping promotes the pro¬ 
duction of blossom-buds, and fruit-bearing spurs, according to 
the mode,of the tree’s bearing. 
The season for pruning must be regulated in some degree by 
the strength of the tree; for although, as a general rule, the 
operation should not take place in deciduous trees until the fall of 
the leaf indicates that vegetation has ceased, yet if the tree be 
weak, it may be often performed with advantage a little earlier, 
but still so late in tho autumn as to prevent the protrusion of 
fresh shoots. This reduction of the branches before the tree has 
finished vegetating prevents the mere increase of length, and 
directs a greater supply of sap to those remaining, and stores 
up in them the supply for increased growth next season. If 
the production of spurs is the object of pruning, a branch 
should be pruned so as to leave a stump ; because, as the sap 
supplied to the branch will be concentrated upon those buds 
remaining at its extremity, these will be productive of spurs, 
though otherwise they would have remained dormant, it being 
the general habit of plants first to develope and mature parts 
that are furthest from the roots. It is thus the Filbert is induced 
to put forth an abundance of young bearing wood, for its fruit is 
borne on the annual shoots ; and similar treatment to a less severe 
extent is practised upon wall fruit. 
In pruning evergreen trees and shrubs cultivated for their 
foliage, the operation should be performed just when growth has 
commenced in the spring, for this induces the production of more 
vigorous and more numerous shoots. 
Pruning, however, may be justly divided into three kinds— 
Summer or Growth-pruning, which we have just considered under 
the head of Stopping ; Boot-pruning, which we dwelt upon whilst 
writing about the roots of plants; and Winter or Best-pruning, 
on which we will make some further notes. 
So far as the Science of Gardening is concerned, it has to be 
practised for the following objects :— 
1. The admission of more light. 
2. Relieving oppressed trees. 
3. Furnishing blanks. 
4. Inducing spurs. 
1st. Admission of Light. —That the removal of a portion of 
the shoots, or branches of a tree, will enable the remaining portion 
to receive a greater degree of light, is self-evident. A free and 
equal admission of light tends to produce an equality in the 
branches, and, by consequence, equality in the character and size 
of the fruit; for in trees totally unpruned we may often see a few 
fine fruit just at the extremity of the branch, whilst the remainder, 
especially the interior, is crowded with produce deficient both in 
size and quality. The free and equal admission of light also 
tends to produce solidification of the wood, and thereby to pro¬ 
mote healthiness of habit—one step, assuredly, to size and qualify 
of fruit. 
2nd. Believing Oppressed Trees. —If, through overbearing, 
general debility, age, canker, or temporary loss of power, through 
removal, or any adventitious circumstances, trees evince weakness, 
pruning judiciously performed is a certain relief, and very fre¬ 
quently a permanent one. 
3rd. 'Furnishing Blanks. —This, indeed, with regard to young 
treeB especially, is one of the most important ends of rest-pruning. 
The chief misfortune is, that in attempting to carry out neat, 
systems of traiuing, much sacrifice of wood, which would otherwise 
prove of fruitful character, is too apt to be made. This, indeed, is 
almost inseparable from a systematic course iu tho earlier stages 
of the tree; still a judicious course of “summer-stopping” and 
timely training will save many a twig, which otherwise falls 
before the hand of the “ rest ” primer. Whatever be the course 
pursued in regard of summer management, rest-pruning should 
be resorted to with trees of all ages, when and where deficiencies 
exist. The primer, in this case, may merely remember that a 
tendency exists in most free-growing shoots (on young trees 
especially) to lengthen, and that it very frequently serves the 
cultivator’s purpose much better to cause one strong shoot to 
branch into four or five subordinate ones ; this the rest-pruner’s 
knife can accomplish under ordinary circumstances. 
4th. Inducing Spurs. —One of the most important offices of 
rest-pruning, and in carrying out a dwarfing system, needs to be 
practised annually on many of the long shoots of young and free- 
growing trees, until the side-buds are made to develope in some 
degree. 
Pursuing this subject, we have from Mr. Beaton these further 
suggestions of practice combined with science:— 
“ If you stand before a young tree, about six feet high, and 
see one or more of the side-branches much stronger than the 
rest, with their ends more upright—showing plainly that they, 
too, would be leaders in time, as much so as the centre and true 
leader—science teaches that if the top, or tops, are merely cut 
off or stopped, the ascending force is divided, and the leading 
character is lost, from that hour, to those shoots. But science 
may be at fault for all that; and practice alone pnist guide the 
