| 1 June, 1900.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 495 
This will cause the bud to start growth, and will also force all the dormant 
buds on the stock itself. The latter must all be rubbed off, and, unless the 
_bud is growing upright, it should be tied to the portion of the stock that is left 
above it. In most cases it is advisable to stake all buds and grafts so as to 
| produce trees with well-grown straight stems. All side branches should be 
| removed and the young plant trained to a single stem, so as to produce a tree 
t 
and not a bush, as is the case when the bud or graft is allowed to form a 
number of branches as soon as it starts to grow. In propagating worked trees 
the first thing is to be sure that your stocks are right—viz., seedling scarlet or 
Emperor mandarins for all mandarins, and seedling sweet oranges for all 
varieties of oranges and lemons. Cumquats may be worked on seedling 
cumquats or seedling mandarins; limes and citrons on common lemon seed- 
lings, but this last-named stock should never be used for anything else. Having 
| secured good stocks, see that you get good scions from vigorous, healthy, 
rolific trees of well-proved merit, and you will thereby produce trees that will 
have all the good qualities of their parents, and on which you can thoroughly 
depend. 
Prantrne. 
If the land has been prepared as described, planting is a simple matter. 
First of all trim the roots of the young tree, carefully cuttimg off all bruised 
and broken roots, and shorten back any straggling roots. In digging the hole 
for the tree, put the top soil on one side and the subsoil on the other, and only 
take out enough to give you sufficient depth to enable you to set the tree at 
the same depth at which it stood in the nursery, and to permit of the roots 
being properly spread out. There is no necessity whatever to dig very large 
holes, as if the land has been well prepared it is entirely waste labour. In 
digging the hole for the tree, see that the centre of the hole is slightly higher 
than the sides, so that the roots will tend downwards instead of upwards. 
When the tree is set in its right place by means of the planting board, scatter 
alittle of the fine top soil over the roots, and work it carefully between them, 
continuing this till the roots are all well spread out and covered. If the soil 
is at all dry, the tree should now receive a watering of one or more 4-gallon 
buckets of water; and when this has soaked in, the hole should be filled up to 
the surface with the dry soil. This is far preferable to surface watering, as it 
does not cake the ground. The water is placed just where it is wanted, and 
the dry soil put above it prevents surface evaporation, and tends to retain the 
moisture. There is no necessity to stake the young tree, and if it has been 
headed in the nursery no cutting back is necessary; on the other hand, if it 
has not been headed, then it should be cut back to a height of about 18 inches 
and allowed to develop 3 to 4 or 5 branches with which to form the head of the 
tree. 
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THE DWARF SYSTEM OF GROWING DECIDUOUS FRUITS. 
By JAMES PINK. 
A Few years ago the eminent horticulturist, the late Shirley Hibberd, when 
addressing the Fellows of the Royal Horticultural Society at South Kensington, 
startled the horticultural world by saying :—“I am fully persuaded that our 
present system of pruning deciduous fruit trees, by inducing them to make 
strong growth and then reducing it by cutting away the greater portion of the 
new growth and sending it to the fire heap, is radically wrong.” Vegetable 
physiologists have held that, by the usual system of winter pruning, a great part 
of the strength and usefulness of the tree is wasted. To remedy this, several 
systems have been tried, such as the cordon, the pyramid, and others. It is well 
known that the finest fruits produced in the world are grown on the cordon 
system around Paris, where the sides and banks of the railways are covered 
with cordon trees, aiid the finest fruits thus produced are sold in Covent Garden 
RS RR RC ae RR A Ee ete 
