458 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
November  22,  1900. 
is  locked  up  until  rendered  soluble  by  the  action  of  micro¬ 
organisms. 
Nitrate  of  soda,  ammonium  salts,  and  soot  give  off,  their  nitrogen 
at  once,  hence  it  is  ready  for  use  directly  these  substances  are  apj^lied 
to  the  soil  and  dissolved  by  moisture.  Guano  occupies  an  inter¬ 
mediate  position  to  the  former  fertilisers,  as  a  certain  part  of  its 
nitrogen  is  in  a  readily  soluble  form  and  at  once  available  to  plants, 
while  a  portion  becomes  only  gradually  useable. 
Nitrogenous  manures  help  to  strengthen  plants  to  which  they  are 
applied  in  their  early  stages  ;  they  favour  leaf  growth,  and  give  a 
deep  green  healthy  colour  to  the  foliage ;  they,  therefore,  encourage 
the  vegetative  properties  of  plants  rather  than  the  maturation  or 
ripening.  Applied  in  excessive  quantities  they  induce  rank  growth 
at  the  expense  of  the  development  of  flower  and  fruit,  with  a  lowering 
of  the  fruit  flavour. 
Phosphoric  acid,  the  second  of  the  important  elements,  exists  in 
all  fertile  soils  in  combination  with  various  mineral  substances,  and  it 
exerts  a  most  beneficial  influence  on  the  growth  of  all  garden  plants* 
This  ingredient  is  found  in  soils  partly  in  a  form  that  plants  can 
readily  dissolve,  and  make  use  of  in  the  building  of  their  structure  > 
and  partly  in  an  insoluble  form,  which  under  the  influence  of  rain 
water,  carbonic  acid,  and  air  are  gradually  changed  into  available 
plant  food.  As  there  is  no  loss  of  phosphoric  acid  by  drainage,  the 
soil  will  only  become  deficient  in  this  fertiliser  by  continuous  cropping 
without  a  return  of  suitable  manure. 
Phosphoric  acid  is  of  special  importance  in  the  early  life  of  plants ; 
it  stimulates  the  assimilation  of  other  minerals  by  the  plant,  and 
favours  the  development  of  its  root  system.  Thus  an  intimate 
relation  exists  between  the  nitrogenous  constituents  and  the  phos¬ 
phoric  acid  in  plants ;  and  as  phosphoric  acid  assists  materially  in 
the  ripening  and  colouring  of  fruits,  and  is  concentrated  especially  in 
the  seed  of  plants,  it  follows  that  the  greatest  demand  of  this 
fertiliser  is  when  crops  are  grown  specially  for  the  production  of  ripe 
seed  or  well-matured  fruit.  We  leave  the  subject  of  potash  and  lime 
to  another  occasion. — J.  J.  Willis,  Harpenden. 
(To  be  continued.) 
- - 
Pruning. 
fl  HE  greatest  pruning  season  of  the  year  is  upon  us.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  though,  pruning  goes  on  all  the  year  round  almost,  with  the 
respective  seasonable  differences  of  operations  and  operators  ;  at  some 
periods  the  thumb  nail  does  it  on  soft  and  growing  shoots,  checking 
them  and  diverting  the  sap  into  the  proper  and  desired  channels,  and 
at  others  the  knife  and  secateurs,  or  the  saw  and  long-handled  pruners 
do  the  work.  The  coming  season  is  for  the  latter  operators.  But 
when  you  come  to  think  of  it  what  curious  notions  we  most  of  us 
have  as  to  pruning,  more  than  we  have  of  any  other  gardening 
operation,  but  as  to  how  to  do  it,  and  when  to  do  it,  and  also  of  the 
results  of  the  doing  it ;  and  if  there  is  one  thing  that  we  are  more 
certain  of  than  any  other  it  is  that  our  way  is  absolutely  the  best  and 
only  way  of  carrying  out  this  most  neces.sary,  most  scientific  (as  we 
think),  and  most  utilitarian  (as  we  hope)  operation.  And  how  we 
smile  with  superior  complacency  if  anyone  be  rude  and  sceptical 
enough  to  hint  that  our  way  of  pruning  is  open  to  question,  and 
that  the  results  will  be  both  doubtful  and  problematical. 
One  of  the  most  amusing,  though  sometimes  vexing,  things  about 
pruning  is  to  be  asked  by  some  farmer  or  cottager  neighbour  who  has 
let  his  orchard  trees  grow  into  impenetrable  thickets,  and  are  therefore 
either  barren  or  producing  small  and  useless  fruit,  to  “comeand  pr.ine 
my  trees  !  ”  He  has  the  notion  that  all  that  is  required  to  bring  the 
barren  fruit  trees  into  immediate  and  bountiful  bearing  is  to  have 
them  pruned,  and  he  is  mightily  indignant  if  the  next  season  after 
they  have  been  pruned  by  having  the  light  let  into  them  they  do  not 
give  him  full  crops.  “  What  a  fool  that  so-and-so  is  who  pruned  those 
trees ;  why,  he  has  cut  all  the  bearing  wood  out  of  them.  I  wish  I’d 
never  had  them  done !  ”  Pruning  to  him  goes  along  with  the  same 
idea  as  the  giving  a  dose  of  physic  to  his  horse  or  cow,  he  gives  the 
physic  at  night  and  the  animal  is  better  in  the  morning.  There  is, 
no  doubt,  pruning  and  pruning,  and  no  one  should  be  allowed  to 
prune  unless  he  has  the  clearest  possible  idea  in  his  mind  as  to  what 
will  be,  or  ought  to  be,  the  result  of  every  cut  that  he  makes. 
The  late  Mr.  Mearns,  one  of  the  best,  if  not  the  best,  fruit¬ 
growing  gardeners  of  his  day,  when  at  Welbeck  Abbey  used  to  quietly 
watch  his  young  men  on  the  fruit  walls,  and  if  he  saw  one  making 
what  looked  to  him  a  doubtful  cut,  he  would  pull  him  up  with  the 
short,  sharp  question,  “What  do  you  mean  by  that?”  and  if  the 
young  pruner  could  give  an  intelligent  answer  explanatory  of  the  cut 
and  w^hat  he  intended  by  it,  and  that  answer  was  satisfactory,  he  was 
rewarded  by  the  curt,  but  kindly,  “Quite  right;  very  good.”  But  if 
he  had  made  the  cut  thoughtlessly,  and  could  not  defend  it,  he  got  a 
stern  rebuke,  and  a  practical  lesson  given  him  there  and  then  by  his 
master,  with  the  scathing  reminder,  “Never,  as  long  as  you  live,  dare  . 
to  make  a  cut  on  a  tree  or  bush  that  you  do  not  know  or  hoje  will 
have  a  fruitful  result.” 
This  is,  in  all  truth,  the  only  consideration,  or  ought  to  be  the 
only  consideration,  in  the  mind  of  everyone  who  prunes — What  do  I 
expect  to  get  by  this  ?  and  he  may  be  sure  of  this — that  he  will  never 
get  good  results  unless  he  knows  sufficient  about  the  tree  or  bush, 
why  it  bears  and  how  it  bears  fruit ;  where  the  fruit  comes  from  on  it; 
and  how  best  to  bring  on  the  fruit-bearing  branches,  and  to  ripen 
them  ready  to  do  their  work. 
These  remarks  lead  up  to  a  note  on  pruning  which  I  could  not 
very  well  work  into  my  notes  on  “Grove  Hall,  Notts,”  in  the  Journal 
of  October  11th,  page  [332,  and  I  think  I  can  best  give  it  in  Mr. 
Welch’s  own  way,  not  perhaps  in  his  very  words,  but  very  nearly  so. 
Look  here,”  he  said,  as  we  walked  up  to  a  Pear  on  one  of  the  walls,. 
“  I’ll  show  you  an  experiment  and  its  result.  This  Pear  (Bergamotte 
Esperen  I  think  was  the  name,  but  there’s  a  blank  in  my  notebook, 
as  to  the  name,  which  after  all  is  immaterial)  was  one  of  the  best 
laid  in  of  our  horizontally  trained  Pears,  but  like  many  of  the  old 
horizontal  trained  trees,  all  the  fruit  was  on  the  young  growths  at 
the  ends  of  the  various  branches.  We  all  know  that  that  is  so,, 
and  as  I  did  not  like  the  tying  down  system — it  makes  such 
bundles  of  the  branches — and  the  piecemeal  way  of  faking  out  a 
branch  here  and  a  branch  there,  and  training  a  young  shoot  in  did 
not  work  very  well,  I  thought  I  would  try  a  bold  and  desperate 
scheme  of  my  own — cut  off  the  whole  of  the  horizontal  branches 
close  up  to  the  bole  and  start  the  tree  afresh.  I  did  it,  and  here  is 
the  result.  Will  it  do?”  I  was  bound  to  say  that  “it  would  do,” 
'or  the  tree  had  been  made  young  again,  and  was  producing  a  good 
crop  of  fine  fruit,  and  every  lateral  branch  was  extending  itself  and 
being  correctly  trained  and  judiciously  pruned,  and  w«  uld  evidently 
go  on  doing  so.  It  was  a  courageous  thing  to  do,  and  only  a  strong 
man  would  dare  to  do  it,  and  as  “nothing  succeeds  like  success,”  and 
also  as  a  hint  to  others  who  may  have  trees  in  like  condition,  I  give 
the  experiment  for  what  it  is  worth.  If  I  have  under  or  overstated 
the  ca‘e,  no  doubt  Mr.  Welch,  who  is  a  very  careful  reader  of  our 
Journal  (as  witness  his  note  in  the  Journal,  page  377,  on  “  Mulching 
Asparagus  Beds  in  Winter”),  will  put  me  right. 
Any  gardener  who  comes  into  possession  of  Pear  wa'ls  of  this 
description  knows  how  mortifying  it  is  to  see  yards  and  yards  of  barren 
space  on  beautiful  horizontal-trained  trees  with  a  few  fruits  at  the 
extreme  end  of  the  young  branches,  and  for  the  life  of  him  he  does  not 
know  how  to  remedy  if.  He  tries  his  hand  at  first  one  thing  and 
then  another,  tries  different  ways  of  pruning  the  spurs,  leaving  them 
long,  short,  and  medium  lengths.  No  good  that,  much  !  Tries  what 
some  forty  or  fifty  years  ago  most  ably  and  powerfully  advocated,  the 
tying  down  of  young  growths  all  along  the  branches,  until  his  trees 
look  like  a  collection  of  birch-brooms  at  certain  times  of  the  year,  and 
a  confused  mass  of  growth  at  others,  but  with  a  very  limited  fruit 
result.  Takes  out  a  branch  here  and  there,  and  tries  to  get  a  young 
shoot  to  put  in  the  next  season,  but  doesn’t  always  succeed,  and,  if  be 
doe.®,  the  branches  above  and  below  smother  it,  and,  finally,  he  gives 
it  up,  and  gets  what  he  can  and  how  he  can.  Beomse,  mind  you, 
there  is  one  consideration  which  must  always  weigh  with  him,  and 
that  is,  will  the  “  powers  that  be  ”  let  him  take  desperate  measures, 
like  those  Mr.  Welch  took,  and  cut  back  the  beautifully  trained  trees 
which  are  such  a  source  of  admiration  and  satisfaction  to  their  owner 
because  of  their  correct  appearance,  and  thus  try  a  remedy  to  get  them, 
into  fruitfulness  P 
Nine  times  out  of  ten  I  think  the  gardener  would  get  a  very 
positive  negative  in  reply  to  his  request  to  do  this  thing,  as  I  know 
one  did  who  wanted  to  remove  one  such  barren  old  beauty  of  a  Gansel’s 
Bergamot,  beautifully  trained,  I  admit,  which  covered  some  15  yards 
of  wall  for  a  miserably  few  fruits  at  the  ends.  “On  no  account 
whatever!”  nor  could  any  explanation  get  oiher  answer.  We  have 
all  much  to  learn  in  pruning,  no  doubt  ;  we  can  be  too  timid,  we  can 
be  too  bold;  but  there  is  a  good  deal  of  life  wisdom  in  the  remark  that 
“  the  man  that  has  is  the  man  that  takes,”  and  boldness  often  wins, 
and  a  well  considered  experiment  is  most  decidedly  worth  trying. 
— N.  H.  P. 
