774 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
August 8th,'1885. 
SCOTTISH GARDENING. 
Summer Treatment of Fruit Trees. —Seeing that 
Apples and Pears do so well in some localities when 
entirely left to themselves, many are adverse to prun¬ 
ing or training them (especially the first-named) in any 
form, and the huge tangled masses of growth which 
may be seen in old orchards in various parts of the 
country shows that this idea is not confined to any 
particular locality. On the other hand, where the 
saw and knife are applied judiciously, and other wants 
of the trees are duly considered, profit, order, and 
well-appointed orchards prevail. Having worked as 
a journeyman, as well as having had charge of fruit 
trees in sis counties of England, and specially 
observed the fruit culture in many other counties, 
I have come to the conclusion that the “ let alone ” 
system is not, in the majority of cases, the most 
desirable to imitate. While I am opposed to the 
“ cutting-back ” method of growing fruit trees, I 
never could see my way clear to dispense with the use 
of the knife. 
In gardens where fruit trees are only intended to 
occupy a limited space, and the ground has to be 
made the most of for the production of vegetables, 
and perhaps flowers for cutting (a system I never 
admired), special culture must be practised; but what 
is too often, even in well-appointed establishments, 
a great evil, is the , cutting out of young growths and 
keeping the tree to a given height, while the roots 
are stretching far away into rich, strong, growth-pro¬ 
ducing soils, with the result that canker, as a matter 
of course, puts in an unwelcome appearance, and 
there is a marked absence of fruit. In orchards and 
gardens which are specially set apart for fruit-growing, 
trees are grown to larger proportions, and less torture 
is applied to them. The Venerable Archdeacon 
Lea, of Droitwich, says, in his admirable little book, 
Small Farms, that “ Apples and Pears planted on 
common orchard stocks are about fifteen years old 
before they become profitable, and that Apples on the 
English Paradise stock, and Pears on the Quince, 
will come early into bearing, and will, if the position 
is within reach of a good market, prove a profitable 
crop; ” also, “ if Apples are planted in this form it 
should be as bushes, and the pruning should be of 
the simplest kind, just shortening shoots which are 
too rampant, and cutting out those which cross.” 
Such advice is of the simplest and most efficient 
character. 
I, however, hold that Apple-trees can be got into 
bearing and kept fruiting when on the common stock, 
if, beginning the year after they are planted, they are 
systematically root pruned. Little mutilation with the 
knife is required, and fruit bearing becomes a cer¬ 
tainty. From an experience of seven years in close 
proximity to Mr. Lea’s fruit farms, I am convinced 
that fruit failures arise as much from bad manage¬ 
ment as from untoward seasons. Climate is often 
credited with the fine fruit grown in many districts—• 
and with some degree of truth—but too often it is 
found that where climatic influences are of the highest 
order, neglect and failures are the most common. 
The Archdeacon prunes and grafts, as well as makes 
choice of kinds suitable to the district, and although 
root pruning has not till late years been a speciality 
with him, he has always a show of fruit worth the 
visit of a practical man; and this often when other 
extensive cultivators had scarcely a crop in any of 
their orchards. The former used the knife judiciously, 
while the latter belonged to the let alone order. 
The Archdeacon is original in some items of his 
practice; for instance, he invented a huge cutter, like 
a chisel, t by which his workmen can cut off the 
extending roots and save labour in root pruning, so 
he thus wrote me, but I am not in sympathy with 
such an advanced method of fruit-tree manipulation. 
The soil on that farm will, however, do much to 
resuscitate the trees should any severe check be 
given. Much of the practice suitable to a district 
so far south, where soil is so peculiarly suited 
to the wants of fruit trees, would not be adaptable 
for Scotland or counties in northern districts of 
England; but in the latter parts it is all the 
more urgent that a systematic system should 
be adopted to perfect the ripening process of 
growth as early in the season as possible. 
Thorough riqiening and long rest are most conducive 
to successful fruit-culture, and when Apples and Pears 
(other kinds will be referred to anon) have to be 
grown in a restricted form, summer is the time to 
attend to their chief wants, whether it be pruning of 
roots or branches, mulching or watering—and in cer¬ 
tain cases we know manure water is given liberally. 
Where a mass of fibry roots are compactly embedded 
in solid soil, much can be done by the application of 
wholesome stimulant in a liquid form in the matura¬ 
tion of fruit when the crop is heavy in proportion to 
the size of the trees. This can be done, too, when 
exhausted nature is struggling to complete growth, but 
such work must not be done at random. Where trees 
are woody they may be freely divested of their 
crowded shoots at this season (earlier and gradual 
attention to this is better), leaving any which are 
necessary to keep the tree evenly balanced, and not 
shortening within several buds of where they are to be 
cut by-and-bye. Sun and air must have free access 
to all fruit-bearing wood, but where the wood is gross 
and fruit scarce, a tunnel under the tree may be made, 
cutting clean with the knife any “water-pumping” 
roots, and finishing by raising a solid bottom of soil 
(lime rubbish may be freely mixed) to induce the roots 
to grow outwards, and form a mass of fibres. If the 
soil is dry a thorough soaking of water may be given, 
first breaking the surface to let the moisture go right 
down. After such treatment the roots, by examination 
at the end of the season, will be found to have healed 
over and become a mass of fibre, and the wood brown 
and hard, fit to bear fruit. 
Few of the finest varieties of Pears can, with advan¬ 
tage, be grown in Scotland without the aid of walls, 
and many fine kinds of Apples are worth similar 
protection. Outhouses, such as farm buildings, I 
have seen densely clothed with Cordon Apples, which 
give good value for the labour expended on them. 
Some have gone as far as to grow Apples under glass, 
where they develop such qualities as are never seen 
outside. When Apples and Pears are trained on 
walls, it too often happens that pruners keep on 
cutting, year after year, allowing at each time of 
pruning an eye or two outwards, which in time 
develops long knotty spurs like stags’ horns. The use 
of the wall is thus sacrificed, and the trees become 
so crowded that they cease to produce fruit worth the 
labour of training or any other operation ; at flower¬ 
ing time the flowers drop before the fruit is set, simply 
because there is not room for them to open, and they 
thus crowd themselves out. 
The form of training I never put much value upon, 
as most trees can be led horizontal, perpendicular, 
and obliquely across the surface. Some object to 
systematic training, which should be started with 
young trees at first, because of the time it takes. 
If the work is properly done at first, it reduces the 
labour in future very materially ; keeping the leading 
shoots straight and equidistant is a guide to all 
future training. Where wireing is not approved of (a 
system which does much to save labour and is not 
expensive at first), we prefer cast metal nails, allowing 
them to remain permanently, tying the shoots to 
them, allowing plenty of room to swell, and where 
one shoot is removed the nail remains the same as 
before, when the fresh growths may be tied to it. On 
properly managed trees the new growth takes the 
position of the old. It is in summer that the tree is 
formed, and strong growths leading off the strength of 
the trees require topping (just as we have lately done 
some Plums and Cherries), then the weaker growth 
gets the benefit. If all should be growing too strong 
and not likely to cease before the ripening, a trench 
may be opened and root cutting done as advised 
above. No young trees should be allowed to become 
crowded, but if disbudding during spring or early 
summer was attended to, there will not be much 
crowding now. Bush trees may have the same 
attention as trained ones. Old trees which are 
bearing heavily will be much benefited by applica¬ 
tions of manure-water.— M. T. 
Injurious Insect Competition. —At the Frome flower 
show, to be held on the 20th of August, prizes of £5 
and £3 are offered by Miss Eleanor A. Ormerod for 
the best collection of specimens of food plants injured 
by insects, accompanied by samples of the insects 
injuring them, and with a short written account of 
methods of prevention or remedy. 
IXORA COCCINEA. 
Whether for them decorative value when in bloom 
in the stove, or in the summer months in a warm 
conservatory or greenhouse, or for the production of 
flowers for cutting, Ixoras rank with the best of cul¬ 
tivated plants. Amongst the whole of the species, 
and the numerous fine hybrids now in existence, there 
is none equal to I. coccinea; for the colour, size, and 
endurance of its flowers, either on the plant or when 
cut, it stands out in front of all the others. The 
flowers if cut whilst young will last over a fortnight 
in water. By growing three or four plants it may be 
had in bloom nearly the whole year round, and yet it 
seems as if it was destined to all but go out of culti¬ 
vation, for even in places where there is a stove kept 
at a brisk temperature, this grand old kind is now 
seldom met with. Of those who now grow plants for 
exhibition few have got it; why it is difficult to say, 
for, when well done, it counts before any other Ixora, 
or, in fact, before most plants of any kind. 
Possibly one reason why many cultivators fight shy 
of it may be that the plant has got a bad name for its 
leaves getting out of condition in winter, which they 
sometimes do, being affected with black blotches that 
disfigure them, in some cases causing many to fall off, 
which has the effect of weakening the plants. One 
cause of this is where the leaves are soft and deficient 
in substance, through the plants having been kept too 
far from the glass when the growth was being made, 
in this way not having had light enough to give them 
the requisite solidity. But a much more usual cause 
of the occurrence of the injury is through the mistaken 
treatment of keeping the plants too dry at the roots, 
and the atmosphere of the house equally too dry 
during the autumn and winter months, on the 
supposition that they should be quite at rest at this 
season, which is a mistake, not only so far as concerns 
this and other Ixoras, but equally so with many other 
stove plants. 
Needless to say that I. coccinea requires as much 
warmth as any of the species ; it should have a tem¬ 
perature of never less than 65 degs. in the night during 
winter, and should not be kept too long as low as this, 
if even a little warmer all the better. This and a 
good many other stove plants, if to be made the most 
of, ought to be kept gently moving all through the 
dull season; if their heads are as close to the glass as 
they should be, and the house affords the amount of 
light necessary to the well-being of the inmates, no 
injury need be feared through weak-drawn shoots and 
leaves.— T. Baines. 
MIDDLE GREEN FARM, SLOUGH. 
Hitherto when we have had to write anythiug 
about Slough it has generally been in some way or 
other connected with the honoured name of James, or 
the floricultural productions whiph have made that 
name famous wherever the love for flowers exists ; but 
passengers by the Great Western Kailway must have 
noticed during the last few years the gradual conver¬ 
sion of some ordinary farm land adjoining the railway 
between Langley and Slough into a full-blown flower 
garden on a large scale, and which promises ere long 
to make Slough as notable for the cultivation of 
choice seeds, as it has heretofore been for its florists’ 
flowers. The land in question comprises the Middle 
Green Farm, and it belongs to Messrs. J. Yeitch & 
Sons, of Chelsea, who here grow some of their choicest 
strains of flower and vegetable seeds, and test 
the merits of the novelties they either purchase or 
raise themselves before distributing them among their 
numerous clientele. The value of such a trial ground 
to firms like the Messrs. Yeitch, whose reputation for 
the pure and good quality of their seeds is of the 
highest order, can hardly be over estimated, but it is 
only by visiting such farms that one can gain any 
adequate idea of the amount of skill and patience that 
is required, or of the care that is bestowed on the all- 
important matter of keeping stocks true, and by the 
natural process of selection of even improving them. 
The Middle Green Farm, that portion of which 
adjoining the railway is now all aglow with large 
breadths of various brilliantly-coloured annuals, com¬ 
prises about sixty acres of good stiff loam, or brick 
earth, as it would perhaps be most correctly described, 
and by good tilth and heavy manuring it has been 
brought into excellent condition forthe growth of plants 
