496 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. . [1 Junz, 1900. 
at 8s. each, and in the Paris markets at 4 francs each. However fine the fruit 
grown on the cordon principle may be, the system is not suitable for genera 
culture. Nevertheless, the principle was right, and the question was how t? 
bring it into practical use so that fruit of the finest quality could be produced 
in abundance with the least possible strain upon the tree, and Hibberd mai- 
tained that this could be done; that when training the young tree, instead of 
cutting away the wood, it should be bent and tied down to a certain angle, an 
the tree pruned in summer instead of winter; and practice has proved that 
the theory was correct, even here in Queensland. 
When at Toowoomba a short time ago, I visited Mr. Horsfall’s orchard at 
Drayton, where there are about a thousand apple-trees grown on Shirley 
Hibberd’s system, although the owner had never heard of Hibberd or his 
theory. But the idea appears to have been identical—that there was something 
radically wrong in cutting away all the best wood; so Mr. Horsfall adopted the 
plan of tying down the branches to a suitable angle, combining with it summer 
pruning, and it is proving an eminent success. The trees are in various stages 
of growth, for Mr. Horsfall began with a few trees at first, but, finding them t0 
thrive and fruit so well, he continued year by year to take out less payable 
kinds of fruit trees and to replace them with apples, because the apple crop, 
under this system, is the best paying crop in the orchard. The fruit are first- 
class both in size and quality, always find a ready sale, and realise top prices 12 
the market. 
This system of growing fruit has many advantages over the usual styles 
The trees are kept low, about 8 feet in height, and therefore suffer little from 
the wind ; the fruit is always under observation, and can be thinned at will, 
and any disease can be immediately noted. No ladders or steps are required 10 
. collect the fruit or for pruning the trees. The latter should be ranted 15 feet 
apart; this gives 193 trees to the acre. The apple bears its fruit on wood more 
than one year old, but chiefly on spurs, so that, by bending down the one-year 
old wood to the required position, the tree is induced to make flower-buds 
rather than so much wood growth. By bending the branches, the cells through 
which the sap circulates become ruptured, and the interchange between brane 
and root practically ceases. The operation, though somewhat different 
gives practically the same results as ringing. Ringing is an operatio? 
carried out in Europe by growers who intend to show their fruit at any of the 
great fruit shows. Ringing consists in removing a strip of bark right round the 
branch at the back of the fruit. This answers best with apples, pears, and grapes 
Fruit thus treated is larger, finer in quality, and ripens earlier. Physiologically 
science explains the phenomenon thus:—‘The true sap of trees is wholly 
generated in the leaves from which it descends from their bark to their roo} 
depositing in its course the matter which is successively added to the tre 
whilst whatever portion of such sap is not thus expended sinks into the 
alburnum and joins the ascending current, to which it communicates powers D0 
possessed by the recently absorbed fluid. When the course of the descending 
current is intercepted, that sap naturally stagnates and accumulates above thé 
ruptured place, whence it is repulsed and carried upwards to be expended 1? 
an increased production of flower-buds and fruit.” This fully explains th® 
reason that the fruit is finer on the branches of the apple-trees that are bent 
down as already described. 
T have little doubt that when the system of summer pruning is better unde™ 
stood it will revolutionise the present’ methods of growing deciduous fruit® 
Under this system the skilful operator has the trees so entirely under contT? 
that he can almost command a crop at will. The pruner should possess # 
thorough knowledge of the laws which regulate the action of the organs ° 
vegetation. , 
The quantity of wood that a tree forms, the amount and quality of ie 
flowers, the size of its fruits—in short, its whole beauty and value—depend hes 
the action of its branches and leaves and their healthiness. The object of th 
pruner is to diminish the number of leaves and branches so as to strength© 
