298 
THE GARDENING WORLD, 
Jan. 10th, 1885. 
Transplanting' and Pruning Fruit-trees.— 
As it is now getting late, transplanting should be 
carried on with all speed and finished as quickly as 
possible, or it will be found that the trees will break 
but feebly in the spring instead of starting strong as 
they ought to do. That they may have every encourage¬ 
ment to do this it is necessary to exercise the utmost 
care in lifting that every young fibre may be preserved, 
and the larger and older roots saved from bruising or 
damage to the bark, as any abrasion or injury there is 
apt to make them die back, and if rot sets in there is 
no te llin g where it will stop. If the ends are damaged, 
as they must in some measure be, the right thing is 
to prune the torn part off by making a clean cut with 
a sharp knife, after which the smooth end soon heals 
over, and sends out fresh feeders that quickly supply 
the much-needed sap. Although the soil may appear 
good, it is always advisable to give young or any fresh 
lifted trees a little new, the best and most suited to 
their requirements being fibry loam from any old 
pasture or waste places by the road-side, and if for 
stone fruits it should be a little sharp or sandy, but 
for Apples or Pears the heavier it is the better the 
plants will,do in it. The way to use it is just to chop 
it up roughly, as then the decay is slower and it 
remains sweet and open for a long time, gradually 
yielding up its fibre as the roots of the trees need it to 
feed on. That these may be protected from sudden 
change through frost, &c., the soil over them should 
be mulched by putting on a layer of littery manure, 
which may with advantage be left for the year, as in 
spring and summer it will be of great benefit in keeping 
out drought, and will to a great extent enable the trees 
to take care of themselves. 
The knifing back these are subjected to is a big 
mistake, as by reducing the heads further than the 
removal of any shoots not wanted for laying in or 
leaving, the plants are retarded in their progress 
considerably, and the work of filling up a certain 
space on a wall or trellis takes double or treble the 
time it would if the trees were allowed to grow to their 
full length, as they ought to do. It is not till these have 
attained their full size that they should be pruned, 
as disbudding and summer pinching of any shoots 
that are taking an undue lead is all they want, and 
anything beyond such mild restriction is an evil; and 
cue that makes itself felt on the plant. 
In the pruning of established trees, the point to 
aim at is to keep them close spurred, and as there 
are generally more fruit buds than are wanted, some 
may be sacrificed by cutting away such as project 
far from the wall or branch they are on, as the closer 
the spurs are, and the less knarled they be, the finer 
will the fruit come that grows on them. Apples in 
orchards only require thinning, and this should be done 
annually by the removal of any branches that cross 
each other, as it is of the greatest importance that 
the heads be kept open and clear. What injures 
trees as much as anything is the moss that covers 
the bark after they attain a little age, and to preserve 
them in health, it is necessary to have it removed, 
which may easily be done by squirting over them 
some fresh lime-wash, as this destroys the parasite 
in very quick time. The way to prepare it is to slake 
the lime in a quantity of water, and then run it 
through a fine sieve, when it may be ejected on to 
the trees rapidly, by using a garden engine or 
syringe, and every branch covered. The same 
dressing answers admirably for Plums, Gooseberries, 
and Currants, to keep off the birds, which cannot, 
when the buds are so covered, do any injury to the 
bushes or trees, as the lime remains on till late in the 
spring .—Alp ha. 
-ri*- 
Air-Roots on Vines. — How conflicting are 
the opinions that have from time to time been 
given as to the cause of the growth of air-roots on 
vines. Without pretending to infer that any of the 
authorities are wrong, I beg to state a few facts which 
have come under my notice. Some four or five years 
ago I remember looking through the garden of a 
reverend gentleman who kept one gardener whose life 
had principally been spent in the fields, so that he 
could not be expected to know much about vines. In 
this same garden there was a small house entirely 
tilled with one vine, which had a stem probably 9 ins. 
in circumference. The man who was called the 
gardener could read, and he had read somewhere that 
“ the bark should be removed from vines,” so as to 
dislodge insects, and he did indeed remove the bark, 
for it was skinned down to the alburnum, and this was 
so much brused and damaged that the sap oozed out 
and ran down the stem so badly that the vine could 
not supply the necessary sap for the growth, which was 
not of the strongest description, as may be supposed. 
The rods of this vine were covered with air-roots 
from end to end. The soil in the locality was of the 
best description for the roots of the vine to ramble in 
at will, being a deep loam resting on marl and an 
abundance of sandstone rock, affording the best of 
drainage. My impression is that it was the barking 
process that was the cause of this vine forming air- 
roots, coupled with syringing, with the object of 
obtaining what the roots and stem failed to supply. 
The other case I have to notice is that of some very 
old vines, the roots of which not having been disturbed 
for many years, have long got outside their allotted 
bounds. The subsoil in this case is clay, into which 
the roots have doubtless gone. These vines are 
covered with air-roots from beginning to end. 
“ Atmospheric moisture,” doubtless, many would say, 
was the cause ; but not so altogether, or how are we 
to account for young vines planted in a prepared 
border, with concrete bottom, under the same roof 
and subjected to the same treatment not having a 
single air-root on one of them. I could cite many 
other houses, some of which have been in a measure 
under my charge, in which air-roots have been 
most abundant, but none of the gardeners in charge 
were advocates for lifting vines, or I think the air- 
roots would have been more scarce. In years past I 
was told by some that it denoted health and good 
treatment. What a happy state of mind to be per¬ 
suaded thus ! I candidly say for my part that I would 
rather be without them, and always feel there must 
be something wrong where they are freely produced.— 
C. Warden. 
THE FUTURE OF THE POTATO. 
The future of the Potato is a subject of much 
concern to persons who take an. interest in rural 
industries, and it is undoubtedly of importance in 
connection with the problem of the feeding of our ever 
increasing population. Having been actively engaged 
during some thirty years in experimental Potato 
culture, and in the mysteries of the Potato fanc} r , 
both as an exhibitor and critic of varieties, I have 
arrived at some conclusions that have a practical 
bearing, and with your permission will endeavour to 
state them briefly. 
In a general review it must be said that the 
systematic study of the subject during the past thirty 
or forty years—say since 1847—has advanced it 
considerably for. all useful purposes. The students of 
the Potato may be roughly divided into two classes, 
the microscopists and the cultivators. Strange to say, 
those two classes do not overlap as one might d priori 
expect, for the microscopists to a man are not 
cultivators, and the cultivators to a man are not 
mieroscoxrists. The patient investigation of the several- 
species of fungi that infest the Potato has resulted in 
the accumulation of a considerable mass of knowledge, 
Mr. Worthington G. Smith’s definite tracing of the 
resting spores of the Peronospora being the crowning 
of the edifice—such as it is for the present. But all 
this knowledge appears useless in the face of the fact- 
that may be regarded as the centre of interest for 
all the parties. When the disease occurs our know¬ 
ledge of its origin and history does not aid us in any 
way to arrest its progress. Only two serious 
endeavours have been made, on the basis of this 
knowledge, to provide a preventive of the malady. 
Mr. W. G. Smith concocted a mixture of salts called 
“ salus,” the object being to fortify the plant against 
the fungus by providing for it a special kind of alkaline 
food. But the disease paid no attention to salus, and 
the preparation retreated to the realms of history, 
Mr. Jensen, of Copenhagen, proposed a system of high 
moulding and bending the tops with a view to cause 
the shedding of the spores of Peronospora at a suffi¬ 
cient distance from the growing roots to be incapable 
of harm; this has been tried with care by a committee 
comprising microscopists and cultivators appointed by 
the Boyal Horticultural Society, and so far it has 
yielded only negative results. But these results, 
negative as they are, do forcibly hint that the Jensen 
system of moulding will afiord no protection, while it 
is likely to injure the plant, check the growth of the 
crop, and add to the cost of cultivation. 
The practical men have had better fortune. They 
have been engaged in trial cultures of sorts and 
systems, and their conclusions have been arrived at by 
comparisons of the weights, sizes, table qualities, 
times of ripening, and power to resist disease of the 
several sorts as influenced by the several systems 
One of the outward signs of progress is the Inter¬ 
national Potato Exhibition founded in the year 1875, 
an institution chiefly concerned in comparisons of 
varieties and methods, but ready at any time to aid 
the microscopists in any way that may be possible. 
By favour of the Boyal Horticultural Society, the 
Committee of the International Exhibition have been 
enabled to carry out at Chiswick a series of systematic 
trial cultures of new and old varieties, which are 
submitted to all the tests that appear of importance 
in the practical treatment of the subject. Every 
new variety to which the International Certificate of 
Merit is awarded may be regarded as having passed 
the ordeal satisfactorily. The experts who superintend 
these trials require the varieties to be of good appear¬ 
ance, good table quality, and in a general way distinct 
for commercial purposes. The results are the accumu¬ 
lation of a body of practical knowledge and the 
quickening of public interest in the true principles 
of selection and cultivation. Not a few of the 
practical men who are engaged in this business hold 
to the belief that in their department the antidote to 
the disease will be sooner discovered than in that of 
the microscopists. A certain few, who have a gift 
that way, are raising new varieties with a view to 
improve the “noble tuber” in all the qualities that 
are desired. I would name in this connection Mr. 
Fenn, of Sulhamstead; Mr. Dean, of Ealing; Mr. 
Clark, of Christchurch; and Mr. Boss, of Newbury. 
By the combined labours of these, a new race is 
being established without the aid of any blood other 
than that of SoJamim tuberosum , And this new race 
unites great productiveness with high quality and a 
vigorous constitution. I will cite as an example of 
results the famous Magnum Bonum, one of many fine 
things from the seed-bed of Mr. Clark. This was 
first proved on my trial-ground at Hermitage, and 
was there first seen and secured by Messrs. Sutton, 
of Beading, who sent it forth for the advantage of 
mankind in general. In the first lifting of the trial 
crop in the presence of Mr. Martin Sutton, sen., and 
Mr. Martin Sutton, jun., we found the stools (or 
roots) to average 5 lbs. to 7 lbs. weight each, the 
tubers being handsome, and of the fullest Ware size. 
There was no magic or mystery in the cultivation to 
produce these results. The seed sets were planted 
shallow- on a bed of forbidding clay newly broken up 
from pasture, and were low moulded with lime 
rubbish obtained for the mere cost of carting, and the 
vigorous shaws were allowed to sprawl in the way of 
nature fully exposed to light and air without any 
harsh ridging up or bending down to check the growth 
or thwart the action of the healthy leafage. This 
variety has proved a true disease resister, and happily 
we have many such, the fruits of the labours made 
note of above. 
For example we have Clark’s Pride of the Market 
and Covent Garden Perfection; Sutton’s Beading 
Hero, Fifty-fold, and Beading Busset; Dean’s Mid¬ 
summer Kidney and Chancellor; Boss’s Magnet and 
Pride of Eydon ; and Daniel’s White Elephant. None 
of these are absolutely proof against disease—there is 
no living thing in such a happy case. The Potato 
plant is like every other plant, whether of Wheat, Bye, 
Hop, Hollyhock, or weed by the wall, subject to the 
assaults of fungi when certain conditions prevail, 
But, for some reason not as yet clearly explained, the 
varieties of Potatos difier greatly in relative suscep 
tibility, and we have now a considerable list of sorts 
that hold their own fairly well in a bad year, and in a 
good year give heavy crops of the finest quality. The 
point of chief interest appears to be in the power of 
the tuber to resist the assailing fungus. Therefore it 
is that we are now beginning to select Potatos by the 
