September 18, 1886. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
41 
condemn such as bad firewood, or take the tops for 
cheap Christmas trees, but the owners of such things 
appear always to be of a hopeful disposition, and expect 
the branches to return that nature has removed for 
ever, not knowing that coniferous trees are of very 
limited elasticity and do not renew their youth when 
tree what sort of thing it is likely to become in the 
course of a few years. 
The needless conflict with nature in which men often 
delight when they take to gardening is seen in the mis¬ 
management of things. They plant fruit trees, perhaps, 
and if they would but leave them alone nature would 
result from my preachings on the subject ten years ago, 
and I expect to see much more yet, for the loudest 
advocates of the repressive system are beginning to 
believe in nature a little, and they see that it is more 
profitable to allow the trees to produce fruit in their own 
way, than to ensure a crop by purchasing fruit and 
Q_ 
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I 
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Dennett's Black Champion Currant. 
decrepitude has come upon them, as often happens 
with deciduous trees. The Deodar, or the Yew, or the 
giant Holly that seals up all the windows of a house 
and makes pestilence in the family by excluding sun¬ 
shine and air we will not talk about, for it is not a 
mistake in gardening, it is an absurdity of a more 
dreadful nature, and belongs to the agencies—and there 
are many such—that blight the world and destroy life. 
These stiflers, however, illustrate in the most forcible 
manner, the necessity of considering when we plant a 
be kind and give them fruit. But they must do some¬ 
thing, and so they pinch the trees several times in the 
summer, and prune them severely in the winter, and, 
perhaps, root prune occasionally when the trees have 
none too many roots, and the end of it is that they get 
no fruit at all, or so little that its value will scarcely 
pay for the sharpening of the instruments of torture. 
The chopping, and shaving, and bleeding, and distort¬ 
ing of fruit trees to make them fruitful may be said to 
have had its day. Certainly I have seen some good 
tying it on. What is true of fruit trees is true of 
lioses, and many more good things that people insist 
on doing too much for, as though nature had nothing 
to do with the production of flowers and fruits. One 
reason why standard Roses die in gardens is that they 
are too severely pruned, and the powerful briar stock 
of which their stems consist must either be allowed to 
grow with vigour, or must give up existence when it has 
become a mere oppression. If all the pruning knives 
and all the cutting and clipping machines that are used 
