424 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
May  14,  1903. 
Unproductive  Fruit  Trees. 
( ConchuJed  from  jmrje  404 ). 
No  article  dealing  with  unhealthy  fruit  trees  is  complete 
without  a  reference  to  American  blight,  which  is  a  common 
sight  in  old  and  neglected  orchards,  many  trees  being  com¬ 
pletely  robbed  of  their  life-blood  by  it,  and  for  this  pretty 
much"  the  same  treatment  is  necessary  as  that  just  de¬ 
scribed  in  the  way  of  thinning  out  the  wood  and  cleaning 
the  bark.  It  very  often  indicates  that  the  trees  are  wet  at 
the  roots,  as  it  seldom  gets  a  hold  of  trees  that  are  healthy. 
In  such  a  case  the  ground  should  be  drained  to  take  away 
the  superfluous  moisture,  and  this  alone  will  be  found  to 
work  a  great  reformation  in  the  trees,  while  a  still  further 
improvement  may  be  effected  by  shaving  off  Sin  or  Sin  of 
the  surface  soil  with  all  the  chrysalides,  eggs,  and  insects 
contained  in  it,  and  substituting  a  layer  of  good  fresh  soil 
mixed  with  rotted  manure  and  basic  slag.  Where  there  is 
grass  under  the  trees  it  is  diflicult  to  do  this,  and  the  best 
thing  to  do  in  such  a  case  is  to  feed  the  trees  with  a  dress¬ 
ing  of  basic  slag  in  the  autumn  at  the  rate  of  lOlb  to  the 
fort}'  square  yards,  or  bonemeal  or  bone  dust  at  half  this 
rate,  at  the  same  time  applying  a  dressing  of  farmyard  or 
stable  manure,  but  not  thick  enough  to  damage  the  grass, 
and  this  may  be  supplemented  by  giving  a  dressing  of 
nitrate  of  soda  at  the  rate  of  lib  to  the  forty  square  yards 
in  .Vpril  and  again  in  May.  The  object  of  this  treatment  is 
to  get  the  tree  to  return  to  a  vigorous  state  of  growth, 
when  disease  will  probably  disappear  and  fruitfulness  take 
its  nlace  ;  but  nothing  can  be  done  while  the  soil  about  the 
roots  is  waterlogged. 
At  the  other  extreme  to  this  is  the  non-bearing  of  trees 
through  dryness  at  the  roots,  a  much  more  common  cause 
than  most  people  imagine,  especially  w'ith  wall  trees.  From 
the  latter  there  is  an  immense  amount  of  evaporation  of 
moisture  going  on  when  the  sun  shines  directly  upon  them, 
and  the  trees  can,  as  a  rule,  only  get  moisture  from  orie 
side,  instead  of  all  round  as  with  trees  in  the  open,  and  in 
addition  to  this  the  wall  keeps  off  a  good  deal  of  the  rain. 
The  result  is  that  the  soil  gets  bone  dry  in  the  summer  to 
a  depth  of  several  feet,  and  often  does  not  get  saturated 
during  the  whole  year,  especially  in  a  series  of  such  dry 
seasons  as  we  have  had  the  last  eight  or  nine  years.  Most 
people  in  towns,  if  asked,  would  say  that  1902  was  a  wet 
year,  especially  the  summer,  but  it  was  only  a  damp  one. 
This  fact  was  impressed  upon  me  in  the  autimin.  when  I 
dug  down  in  front  of  an  Apricot  tree  about  3ft  from  the 
stem,  and  found  the  soil  perfectly  dry  l|ft  from  the  surface, 
though  I  had  given  the  tree  what  I  thought  was  a  good 
deal  of  water  during  the  summer.  In  the  early  spring  the 
tree  had  a  large  number  of  blossom  buds  upon  it,  but  many 
of  them  dropped  off  before  opening,  while  many  of  the  re¬ 
mainder  were  deformed,  and  produced  no  fruit.  A  very  ex- 
nerienced  grower  of  Apricots  says  there  is  not  the  least 
doubt  that  this  was  owing  to  dryness  at  the  roots,  and  he 
always  gives  his  trees  several  waterings  even  during  the 
winter,  especiallv  towards  the  end  of  it,  say  February,  when 
the  bloom  buds  are  swelling  up.  And  it  is  not  only 
Apricots  that  suffer  in  this  way.  but  all  wall  fruit  trees.  In  the 
case  I  have  just  described  the  subsoil  was  so  hard  as  to  appear 
absolutely  impervious  to  water.  The  thing  to  do  in  such 
cases  is  to  dig  out  a  semicircular  trench  1ft  to  2ft  wide  (the 
latter  by  preference)  a  radius  of  3ft  from  the  stem,  preserv¬ 
ing  all  the  fibrous  roots  as  far  as  possible,  and  cutting  off 
with  a  clean  cut  any  roots  that  are  damaged,  and  taking 
right  away  all  the  dry  and  exhausted  earth  to  a  depth  of 
2ft  or  more,  and  filling  up  the  trench  with  good  fresh  earth, 
turfy  loam  if  available,  mixed  with  well-rotted  dung,  and 
the  whole  sprinkled  with  basic  slag  or  bonemeal,  the  earth 
being  pressed  down  firmly  and  the  roots  spread  out  care¬ 
fully  as  the  work  proceeds.  If  any  fibreless  or  downward 
growing  roots  are  cut  away  they  will  be  little  loss  to  the 
tree.  After  a  year’s  growth  this  new  earth  will  be  full  of 
new  roots,  and  if  the  water  is  applied  to  this  it  will  run 
straight  down  and  soak  through  the  whole,  to  the  immense 
benefit  of  the  tree.  If  this  process  is  repeated  in  a  couple 
of  years — and  it  will  pay  to  do  it  if  the  maximum  of  fruit 
from'  the  minimum  of  space  is  the  ideal — the  trench  should 
be,2in  or  3in  further  from  the  wall  than  the  first  one,  so 
that  no  roots  should  be  cut  through  again  at  the  same  place 
as  befoi’e. 
Yet  another  common  cause  of  the  unfruitfulness  of  a  tree 
is  the  exhaustion  of  the  soil.  This  is  most  often  the  case 
with  stone  fruit  trees,  as  these  take  such  a  large  quantity 
of  solid  matter  from  the  soil.  Sometimes  the  tree  not  only 
exhausts  the  soil  within  reach  of  the  roots  by  maturing  a 
heavy  crop  of  fruit  without  proper  feeding,  but  in  so  doing 
weakens  its  constitution  for  years  to  come.  The  only  remedy 
for  such  a  condition  is  the  application  of  liberal  quantities 
of  proper  plant  food,  which  may  be  given  in  the  same  quan¬ 
tities  as  recommended  above  for  trees  suffering  with  Ameri¬ 
can  blight.  In  addition,  kainit  may  be  applied  in  the 
autumn  at  the  rate  of  2lb  to  3lb  to  the  twenty  square  yards. 
Making  a  trench  round  the  tree  as  recommended  above, 
but  preserving  all  the  roots  possible,  would  be  a  very  effec¬ 
tive  method,  perhaps  the  best  of  all.  But,  of  course,  .no 
method  adopted  in  the  late  autumn  or  winter  can  affect  the 
barrenness  of  the  tree  the  following  summer,  as  the  buds 
are  formed  for  fruit  or  leaf  before  the  leaves  fall  in  the 
autumn,  but  if  properly  carried  out  it  will  have  a  great 
effect  upon  the  growth  of  the  tree  the  following  season,  not 
only  in  its  vigour,  but  in  the  character  of  the  growth, 
which  latter  will  be  specially  noticeable  to  a  trained  eye. 
Many  people  regard  a  year’s  rest  as  the  inevitable  conse¬ 
quence  of  bearing  a  heavy  crop,  but  this  is  quite  a  mistake. 
If  a  tree  is  properly  fed  it  should  rarely  miss  fruiting  for  a 
season,  and  then  scarcely  from  any  other  cause  than  spring 
frosts,  or  improper  maturation  of  wood  through  a  wet 
summer  and  autumn.  With  dwarf  trees,  which  can  be  pro¬ 
tected  from  frost,  especially  those  on  a  wall,  a  season's 
failure  should  be  still  more  rare. 
I  am  well  aware  that  in  the  above  article  I  have  not  by 
any  means  exhausted  this  large  subject  ;  but  I  have  given 
what  I  consider  the  most  common  causes  of  unfruitfulness 
and  their  remedy,  having  endeavoured  to  give  the  most 
useful  hints  to  the  largest  number  of  people. — Alger  Petts. 
New  Cactus  Dahlias  of  1902. 
Cou.sidering  the  few  years  that  the  Cactus  Dahlia  has  been 
known  in  its  present  form  it  is  astonishing  how  it  has  spread  over 
almost  all  the  countries  of  the  world  where  a  climate  at  all  suit¬ 
able  to  its  requirements  is  found,  and  even  in  some  of  the  hotter 
parts  yearly  consignments  are  forwarded  from  England.  The 
interest  taken  in  the  new  sorts  is  very  considerable,  and  amateur 
exliibitors  in  many  parts  of  our  colonies  as  well  as  in  America 
and  elsewhere,  are  as  keen  on  purchasing  the  new  varieties  each 
year  as  the  most  enthusiastic  competitors  are  at  home. 
Owing  to  the  rapidity  of  improvement,  and  the  continual 
though  gradual  changes  of  the  .standard,  of  what  is  considered 
excellence  in  a  Cactus  Dahlia,  those  who  wish  to  be  in  the  fore¬ 
front  are  obliged  to  yearly  add  to  their  collection  some  few  varie¬ 
ties  ;  while  in  other  cases  we  know  of,  growers  who  make  a  hobby 
of  growing  and  trying  new  flowers,  not  only  of  Dahlias,  but  other 
subjects  as  well,  and  after  all,  those  who  complain  of  the 
expense,  Ac.  of  buying  new  Dahlia.s,  are  somewhat  losing  sight 
of  the  fact  that  half  the  pleasure  of  gardening  is  derived  from 
the  growing  of  new  and  untried  varieties  of  flowers,  Ac.,  as  to 
grow  the  same  thing  year  after  year  is,  to  a  certain  extent, 
monotonous,  and  in  no  way  so  plea.'^ing  as  to  watch  the  coming 
of  the  new,  which,  by  the  way,  has  its  disappointments  as  well 
as  its  surprises,  for  the  new  are  ever  capricious,  and  ofttimes  the 
remembrance  of  what  the  flower  was  when  we  saw  it  as  certified 
at  the  .show  or  elsewhere,  is  rudely  sliaken  by  the  bloom  Avhich 
develops  on  our  own  plants.  By  no  means  is  tliis  always  the  case, 
and  the  good  have  to  be  taken  as  compensation  for  the  indifferent 
ones. 
During  la.st  year  (1902)  we  .saw  many  new  Cactus  Dahlias;  at 
the  first  N.D.S.  show  something  like  fifty-five  new  varieties  being 
entered  for  certificate,  out  of  which  nine  only  received  first-class 
certificates.  The.se  were  : — 
Mabel  Needs.— Light  scarlet,  full  in  the  centre,  and  large 
flower. 
Vesuvius. — Fancy  Cactus ;  yellow  ground,  speckled  and 
striped  with  crimson.  Fine  incurved  form,  and  strong  in  the 
stem. 
Fva. —  Purest  white,  incurved  in  form,  stiff  stems;  a  very 
fine  flower. 
F.  A.  Wellesley. — C'rim.son  with  tinge  of  magenta,  fine 
petals,  and  exhibition  form. 
