270 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
December 27, 1890. 
RENOVATING ORCHARDS* 
There are no doubt thousands of orchard fruit trees, 
not only in the kingdom, but almost in every county, 
which are little less than cumberers of the ground. 
Some of these trees cannot be profitably restored, but 
unquestionably many of them may be materially 
improved. 
The one great fundamental error which appears to 
have taken possession of the minds of the majority of 
men who have planted orchards is in apparently 
supposing that the trees would go on growing and 
bearing good fruit year after year, from generation to 
generation, without the soil having restored to it such 
mineral constituents as have been abstracted from it by 
the wood, leaves, and fruit of preceding years. It is 
well known and recognised that all crops of a much 
more ephemeral character than fruiting trees cannot be 
reproduced on the same ground year after year without 
returning to the soil, in the form of manure, the 
constituents removed by those crops, or in so arranging 
successional crops in farms and gardens that require in 
the main either different foods, or, at least, widely 
differing proportions of the same kinds. All farmers 
know that they cannot obtain even half crops of grain, 
Clover, or roots from the same field for half a generation 
if they put nothing into it ; and it is the same with 
garden crops. They can only be produced year after 
year in a satisfactory manner when the ingredients 
necessary for their production are in the soil. Every¬ 
thing that grows in the vegetable, as well as in the 
animal kingdom, needs appropriate food, and just in 
proportion as the supply fails, in the same proportion 
is the debility of animal, plant, or tree manifested. 
The same Principle governs All. 
Pood is the motive power in the growth and pro¬ 
ductiveness of fruit trees, and is as essential to them 
as heat is, as supplied by coal, for the generation of 
steam to enable our engines to do the work for which 
they are intended. And not only must the supply of 
fuel be adequate for the object in view, but the 
machinery must be kept in clean, smooth, free-working 
order, or the fuel would be wasted. It is the same 
with fruit trees. The parts above ground must be 
clean, the branches bright and clear, the leaves stout 
by direct exposure to light and air, or whatever food 
there may be in the soil for the roots to imbibe will 
avail little in the production of fruit. This is plainly 
seen in the case of young trees growing in over-rich 
soil, and where the knife is freely used in cutting back 
the luxuriant growths yearly. They become mere 
thickets of sappy growths and flabby leaves, few or 
no buds forming. This is mentioned for showing the 
necessity of light and air acting directly on the 
foliage of fruit trees for maintaining them in a 
healthy fruitful state. Good leaves, thick in texture, 
deep green in colour, and clean, are manufacturers 
of fruit. They are the machinery, so to say, of trees, 
but differ from mechanical productions inasmuch as 
they are formed, in a large measure, of matter supplied 
by the roots. Produce good leaves by good food from 
the soil, and full exposure to the air for breathing 
and benefiting by the atmospherical gases, then will 
the trees be healthy and productive. 
Now let us turn to orchard trees that need renovation. 
The first question that naturally arises is this, What is 
the cause of their unsatisfactory condition ? It is only 
when the cause of an evil is determined that the best 
remedy can be directly applied. After what has been 
said on the necessity for adding fertility to the soil for 
annual or biennial crops, it will be seen how utterly 
impossible it is for trees that have been draining the 
soil of its virtues for half a century more or less to be 
otherwise than in a debilitated state. They are strug¬ 
gling for existence in famine-stricken soil. The fruit 
they produce is small, hard, juiceless, or more notorious 
for core, kernels, and skin than for thick, tender flesh 
and the red or rosy flush on the clear and speckless 
cheek. These are the fruits that are so much coveted, 
and they can only be produced by good sustenance or 
an adequate supply of suitable, well-digested food. If 
the fruit food, which consists mainly of lime, potash, 
phosphorus, and soda, is in the soil with sufficient 
moisture, the roots will imbibe it in solution and good 
leaves digest it, then there can only be one result— 
healthier growth and better fruit, and it may be as 
good as the variety is capable of producing. 
Unproductive Orchards. 
Some orchards are unproductive through the roots 
having passed deep down into water-logged soil. They 
*From a paper by Mr. John. Wright, read on behalf of the 
British Fruit Growers’ Association, at a meeting of the Falmouth 
Horticultural Society, November 12th, 1S90. 
first seized the food that was nearest, then sought for 
more further afield so to say, just as sheep do in 
pastures ; but if they get into a bog they perish. 
Water is the first necessity of fruit trees, but if it is 
stagnant it is the reverse of nourishing, and may even 
be poisonous, the effects of this being seen in the form 
of gangrenous swellings, canker, gum, mildew, and a 
horde of insects that find suitable conditions in which 
to thrive. Orchards that are failing through the roots 
of the trees being in a quagmire can seldom be restored 
to health, and the only way of improving them is by 
fresh soil and manure placed in actual contact with the 
upper roots, from which new rootlets may be tempted 
to form, as they will when surrounded with a suitable 
medium. It is better to plant new orchards than to 
spend much money in the form of labour and material 
on old under those circumstances. Those who have 
established or inherited such orchards are now paying 
the penalty of the mistake that was made of planting 
the trees in the wrong places, or for not having kept 
the roots near the surface by periodical applications of 
food. In years of long ago any site appeared to be 
thought good enough for an orchard, and trees seem to 
have been planted in places that were too wet for 
growing Potatoes. We can only hope that the errors 
of the past may be taken as lessons that will teach the 
present generation wisdom in the cultivation of fruit. 
When an orchard is in a low wet site that cannot be 
drained perhaps the best thing to do is to plant it 
with Osiers. These give a fair return, draw much 
water out of the land, and the myriads of leaves that 
fall from them gradually enrich the surface soil and 
encourage the production of fibrous roots there, which 
never fail to benefit fruit trees. Osiers established in 
extensive orchards where the land is wet realise 
sufficient for paying a good rent and something more, 
while the trees above them bear excellent crops of 
valuable fruit. 
Bat where one acre of orchard fruit trees needs reno¬ 
vating through excessive wetness of site, twenty 7 and 
more, probably fifty, if not a hundred acres of trees 
have been rendered comparatively effete from an exactly 
opposite cause—namely 7 , soil so dry and poor that there 
is little to be imbibed from it by the roots of the trees, 
and certainly not half so much as is needed for enabling 
them to yield even moderate crops of scarcely market¬ 
able fruit. In such case, the trees, if not too old and 
canker-eaten, are amenable to improvement, and they 
may give, as many have given, a good return for the 
assistance that has been rendered them in feeding 
the roots and thinning and cleaning the branches, also 
by grafting better and free-growing varieties on the 
inferior. I should always be remembered that a tree 
of a bad variety takes up as much room as a good one, 
and, moreover, a tree that neither bears good fruit nor 
makes little beyond cankered growth, may be trans¬ 
formed into a healthy specimen, and bear fine fruit by 
putting a new bead on old shoulders in the form of a 
number of grafts of a strong-growing hardy sort, always 
provided there is nutriment in the soil for the roots 
to appropriate. Strong-growing Apples and other 
■ fruit trees established on weak stocks increase the root 
action of those stocks, and if these can find the requi¬ 
site support for the growths, new layers of bark form on 
the old stems, and a new lease of life is thus given to 
the trees. 
Grafting Profitless Trees. 
Several instances of success resulting from grafting 
profitless trees could be giveri, but two will suffice. Mr. 
Robert Garrod, of Ipswich, planted a number of fruit 
trees some years ago in good soil. lu the course of 
time some of them, instead of growing and bearing, com¬ 
menced cankering, aud were soon worthless. By simply 
cutting back the branches of these, and grafting them 
with varieties that flourished, he made the useless trees 
useful, and they have since borne profitable crops, and 
the stems are free from canker. In this case there was 
sufficient nutriment in the soil, but the paralysed roots 
of the stunted trees could not imbibe it, but the free 
growth of the grafts caused an extension of root action, 
and sufficient nutriment was appropriated for the 
continuance of healthy growth and the support of good 
crops of fine fruit. I am at liberty to mention Mr. 
Garrod’s name, because it has appeared in the public 
press, but I am not free to mention the name of the 
owner of some Apple trees in inferior varieties and of 
stunted growth. They did not afford him £5 worth of 
fruit a year. He was advised to cut them down and 
insert a number of scions on each of tho hardy aud 
strong-growing Bramley’s Seedling. They commenced 
bearing in three yetrs, and the seventh after grafting 
yielded considerably more than £100 worth of fruit. 
Nothing was done to the roots. How, then, is the im¬ 
provement to be accounted for ? In this way. Th 
stunted trees had roots, hut they were of necessity weak, 
and did not extend far from the stems. They had im¬ 
poverished the ground within the small occupied radius, 
hut the strong variety established on the weak imparted 
strength to the roots, and these pushed beyond the 
impoverished radius into fresh feeding ground, and 
practically virgin soil. "When an endeavour is made to 
improve fruit trees by grafting, much stronger-growing 
varieties should he chosen than those which are cut 
down for the reception of the scions, because of the 
increased power that is thus imparted to the roots, for 
the character of the roots is changed by grafting as 
certainly as are the top3 of the trees. 
The process of grafting cannot be made clear to the 
uninitiated without illustrations, but these, with 
concise details, are given in the essay which I wrote for 
the Fruiterers Company, and which can be had by post 
for Is. 3d. from 171, Fleet Street, London. I have 
the less hesitation in mentioning this, as I derive no 
advantage whatever from its sale. 
I wish to make it quite clear that when old trees are 
renovated by grafting alone, it is because there is soil 
that can be reached by stronger roots, and which has 
not been deprived of its fertility. Where the whole 
surrounding ground is impoverished, grafting is not of 
much permanent value. Strong-growing and rooting 
sorts will live where the weaker fail, just as active 
animals with good teeth have an advantage over others 
that are afflicted with the foot-and-mouth disease in 
getting the best share of the pasture ; but where the 
food is scant it is soon devoured. And thus it is that 
we see grafted trees grow very well for a few years only, 
then collapse. They succumb because they have 
emptied the larder, for the earth is the great larder of 
Nature, and it is the duty of cultivators to keep it 
replenished with the food that is needed by the crops. 
The soil itself is not food, but only the medium for 
containing it, as a sponge contains water. We use the 
water and leave the sponge, and fruit trees draw the 
food out of the earth and leave the soil. There are not 
many exhausted fruit trees that cannot be improved by 
enriching the soil or placing in it the fruit-growing 
constituents which have been drawn out, and especially 
when the trees are also judiciously pruned and cleaned 
from insects, moss, and other parasitic encrustations. 
(To be continued .) 
--»>X<- 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. 
Cobbler's Heal.—C an any reader of The Gardening World 
tell me the botanical name of the plant known as Cobbler’s 
Heal ?— F. S. 
Publication Received.— Calvert’s Mechanic's Almanac (90, 
Great Jackson Street, Manchester). 
Communications Received. —A. J. M. —C. J. H. B.—S. & S.— 
W. B. G.—J. C.—R. S. & Co.—F. R. S.—W. D.—W. X.— 
-- 
TEADE CATALOGUES EECEIVED. 
James Veitch & Sons, King's Road, Chelsea, S.W.— Vegetable 
and Flower Seeds for 1891. 
John Laing & Sons, Forest Hill, London, S.B.—Flower and 
Vegetable Seeds, Begonias, Ac 
Webb & Sons, Wordsley, Stourbridge.—Spring Seed Catalogue 
for 1891. 
--»> 2 <-- 
LONDON SEED TRADE. 
December 22nd. 
Messrs. Hurst & Son, 152, Houndsditcb, and 39, 
Seed Market, Mark Lane, E.G., report no demand 
for agricultural seeds. Alsike continues to advance. 
Red Clover, White Clover, and Trefoil remain steady. 
Supplies of New English Red Clover do not come 
forward freely, and yield is reported small, quality is 
below average. Rye-grasses steady. 
-- 
OOVENT GARDEN MARKET. 
December 23rd. 
Cut Flowers.—Average Wholesale Prices. 
s.d. .«.(?. 
Arum Lilies, 12 blms ..4 0 SC 
Bonvardias, per bun. 0 6 10 
Carnations, 12 blooms 10 2 0 
Chrysanthemum, 
12 blms. 10 3 0 
— .12 bchs. 3 0 0 0 
Eueharis ..perdozen 6 0 10 0 
Gardenias, 12 blooms. 0 0 9 0 
Heliotropes, 12 sprays 0 0 10 
Hyacinth, Roman, 
doz. sprays 10 16 
Lapageria, 12 blooms 2 0 4 0 
Lilium, various, 12 bis. 2 0 6 0 
MaidenhairFeru,12bns.4 0 9 0 
Marguerites, 12 bun. 3 0 6 0 
Mignonette ..12 bun. 3 0 6 0 
Pelargoniums,12spys. 10 2 0 
— scarlet ..12sprays 0 0 16 
s.d. s d. 
Xarciss, Paper white 
(French) doz. behs. 4 0 9 0 
- (English), bun. 10 16 
Poinsettias, per doz. 4 0 9 0 
Primula, double, bun. 0 0 1 0 
Pyre thrum, doz. bchs. 2 0 4 0 
Roses, yellow, per doz. 2 6 6 0 
— Tea "_per dozen 10 3 0 
— Red. per doz. 10 2 0 
— Satfrano .. per doz. 10 2 0 
Stephanotis, 12 sprays 0 0 12 0 
Tuberoses, per dozen. 10 2 0 
Violets (Fnch.),Parine 
per bunch 5 0 TO 
- dark . 16 26 
— English, .doz. bun. 2 0 3 0 
