406 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
October  30,  1902. 
members  of  the  herbarium  staff,  and  are  much  appreciated. 
Prizes  are  given  at  the  end  of  the  year  for  the  best  collections. 
In  the  long  winter  evenings  the  Mutual  Improvement 
Society  meets,  when  essays  are  read  by  members ;  or  occa¬ 
sionally  one  of  the  officials  gives  a  lecture,  when  there  is 
sure  to  be  a  good  gathering.  These  essays  and  lectures, 
together  with  the  debates,  are  a  great  boon  to  the  young 
men,  coming,  as  they  do,  from  all  parts  of  the  country.  Then 
the  daily  employment  in  the  care  and  cultivation  of  the  col¬ 
lections  furnish  the  practical  experience  so  necessary  to  all 
good  gardeners.  Three-quarters  of  an  hour  one  day  in  each 
wreek  is  allowed  after  breakfast,  so  that  the  young  men  may 
have  an  opportunity  of  visiting  different  parts  of  the  garden 
to  see  what  plants  are  in  flower,  or  what  work  is  in  progress, 
the  extent  of  the  collections,  &c.  This  also  gives  the  young 
men  a  chance  to  see  any  particular  department  or  class  of 
plants  they  may  be  specially  interested  in.  It  must  be 
obvious  to  everyone  that  such  an  arrangement  is  the  only 
one  possible  to  enable  those  employed  to  keep  in  touch  with 
the  working  of  such  a  large  garden  as  Kew.  There  is  also 
a  cricket  club,  which  is  very  popular  as  a  recreation,  good  for 
body  and  mind.  All  these  advantages,  and  the  mingling  of 
men  from  all  parts  of  Europe,  is  bound  to  have  a  powerful 
influence  in  the  training  of  the  young  men  employed  there. 
Kew,  as  a  garden  of  any  pretensions,  was  founded  in  1739 
by  Augusta,  Dowager  Princess  of  Wales,  the  mother  of 
George  III.  Its  area  was  then  nine  acres,  and  it  was  super¬ 
intended  by  William  Aiton,  who  had  been  trained  by  Philip 
Miller  in  the  Physic  Garden  at  Chelsea,  which  was  the  Kew 
of  that  period.  Under  Aiton’s  management  and  with  the 
aid  of  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  the  garden  increased  in  size  and 
interest  until  about  the  year  1800  it  was  famed  throughout 
Europe  for  its  great  collection  of  plants.  We  may  therefore 
reckon  that  Kew  has  been  a  great  training  school  for  over 
•one  hundred  years. 
In  1840  there  was  a  strongly  expressed  desire  throughout 
the  country  that  the  garden,  which  at  that  time  belonged  to 
the  Royal  Family,  and  was  but  a  private  garden,  should  be 
placed  on  a  different  footing  and  rendered  available  as  a 
great  instructive  and  scientific  establishment  for  the  advan¬ 
tage  of  the  public.  Dr.  Bindley,  a  great  horticultural  teacher 
as  well  as  botanist,  recommended  that  Kew  should  be  made 
a  National  Botanical  Garden,  and  maintained  by  the 
Government. 
Kew  is  now  all,  and  a  great  deal  more,  that  Dr.  Lindley 
recommended.  Its  present  area  is  250  acres,  the  greater 
part  of  which  is  planted  with  trees,  shrubs,  and  herbaceous 
plants.  There  are  about  forty  plant  houses,  including  the 
great  Palm  house,  and  the  much  larger  Temperate  house  or 
winter  garden  recently  completed,  and  numerous  propa¬ 
gating  ioits  and  frames,  besides  three  large  museums  and  a 
picture  gallery  of  good  paintings  of  plants  in  their  native 
country  by  the  late  Miss  M.  North,  and  the  finest  herbarium 
of  dried  plants  in  the  world.  The  present  staff  numbers  about 
170,  of  which  sixty  are  gardeners.  The  collection  of  cultivated 
plants  amounts  to  about  20,000  species,  of  which  6,000  are 
hardy  herbaceous  and  Alpine  plants  (including  hardy  bulbous 
plants),  about  3,000  are  hardy  trees  and  shrubs. 
The  first  printed  catalogue  of  the  plants  grown  at  Kew  in 
1768,  entitled  “  Hortus  Kewensis,”  consisted  of  458  pages, 
and  reckoned  to  contain  3,' 889  species,  of  which  2,712  were 
herbaceous  and  Alpine,  including  Ferns  and  bulbs,  and  488 
were  hardy  trees  and  shrubs.  Lists  of  the  collections  now 
cultivated  at  Kew  may  be  obtained  at  the  gates.  These 
catalogues  are  extremely  valuable  to  all  growers  of  plants. 
The  Botanic  Garden,  which  was  opened  to  the  public  in  1841, 
with  Sir  William  Hooker  as  director,  comprised  only  eleven 
ncres.  In  1847  another  forty-seven  acres  were  added  by  per¬ 
mission  of  the  late  Queen  for  the  formation  of  a  Pinetum, 
but  this  was  too  near  the  London  smoke,  and  soon  lost  its 
distinctive  character,  although  a  few  of  them  have  lingered, 
and  are  now  good  specimens. 
The  present  Arboretum  (also  known  as  the  Pleasure 
Grounds,  as  it  was  formerly  used  for  sporting  purposes  by 
the  King  of  Hanover)  was  commenced  in  1870,  and  consists 
or  about  3,000  species  of  trees  and  shrubs.  The  great  object 
of  Kew  is  to  grow  all  the  best  and  most  interesting  plants 
from  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  to  make  a  good  display  of 
ornamental  gardening  ;  but  unlike  a  University  botanical 
garden,  they  are  not  bothered  with  the  growing  of  large 
quantities  of  material  used  in  the  teaching  and  for  purposes 
ot  research  in  modern  botany. — Albert  Hoskixg. 
(To  be  continued.) 
Renewal  of  Old  Fruit  Trees.  ' 
It  frequently  occurs  that  a  halo  of  sentiment  hangs  around 
and  envelops  the  old  fruit  trees  of  our  gardens,  dating,  per¬ 
haps,  from  the  days  of  youth,  when  it  was  a  real  pleasure  to 
pick  and  eat  a  fruit  (when  the  gardener  was  away),  and  to 
feel  that  by  that  unrighteous  act  one  had  added  a  mite  to 
one’s  horticultural  knowledge ;  for,  as  a  member  of  the 
family,  we  felt  we  had  rights  in  the  fruits  of  the  orchard  and 
gardens  which  were  not  always  recognised  by  the  reigning 
chief.  And  as  we  grew  up  and  came  home — possibly  to  take 
the  place  of  beloved  parents — a  certain  fondness  for  the  well- 
known  old  trees  appealed  to  our  minds,  and  we  could  not 
entirely  yield  to  the  gardener’s  suggestion  that  “  them  old 
trees  wasn’t  no  sort  of  use,  and  had  better  be  made  into 
faggots,”  and  some  fresh  ones  be  purchased  to  put  in  their 
place.  So  it  came  to  pass  that,  after  a  quiet  talk,  we 
assented  to  half  measures  and  gave  the  old  trees  another 
trial,  either  by  grafting  some  new  varieties  upon  them,  or 
by  cutting  away  the  old  mossy  and  gnarled  spurry  boughs, 
and  assisting  them  by  a  liberal  stimulant  at  the  roots. 
Now,  it  is  possible  in  many  cases  thus  to  renew  aged  trees  ; 
Pears  are  particularly  amenable  to  treatment ;  Apples  partly 
so.  But  worn-out  Plums,  Peaches,  and,  in  fact,  all  stone 
fruits  (except  Cherries  in  orchards)  are  better  destroyed  at 
once,  and  replaced  by  new  trees  of  the  best  varieties,  using  a 
liberal  supply  of  fresh  turfy  loam  to  start  them  in.  Under 
such  treatment  they  will  soon  respond  to  the  trouble  be¬ 
stowed  on  them  and  quickly  fill  up  the  vacancies. 
Stone  fruits  will  not  endure  that  severe  pruning  which  is 
necessary  to  renovation,  being  liable  to  “  gum  ”  on  the 
strong  shoots  produced,  or  to  “  collar  ”  at  the  junction  of  the 
new  growth  with  the  old  stem,  and  thus  blow  out  under  the 
strain  of  heavy  winds,  or  choke  with  gum  and  become  use¬ 
less.  Cherries  in  orchards,  however,  never  get  beyond 
treatment,  and  to  renovate  them  the  trees  should  be  gone 
over  as  soon  as  the  crop  is  gathered,  all  the  dead  wood 
removed,  and  the  boughs  which  are  injured  by  breakage,  or 
“splits”  from  contact  with  ladders,  &c.,  at  gathering  time, 
or  from  the  strain  of  an  abnormal  crop,  be  cut  away.  Then, 
if  in  pasture  land,  the  long  strands  of  grass,  thistles,  and 
weeds  should  be  mown,  and  with  the  cuttings  and  primings 
removed  from  the  orchard  and  burnt.  Sprinkle  salt  at 
2  cwts.  to  the  acre  over  the  ground,  and  when  a  new  growth 
of  grass  has  set  in  turn  in  some  ewe  sheep  and  feed  them  with 
oil  cake,  chaff,  Oats,  Peas,  or  Barley  once  a  day  ;  move  the 
feeding  troughs  every  other  day  to  fresh  positions,  until  the 
new  grass  is  fed  down  as  close  as  a  Turkey  carpet,  and  con¬ 
tinue  this  treatment  through  the  winter,  giving  more  or  less 
food  to  the  sheep,  according  to  the  weather,  naturally  most 
in  cold  times.  The  droppings  of  the  sheep  will  gradually 
improve  the  grass  sward,  and  cause  the  Cherry  rootlets  to 
rise  in  March  to  the  surface  for  the  nourishment  to  be  found 
there.  An  earlier  crop  of  foliage  will  thus  ensue,  which  will 
protect  the  young  fruit  from  those  severe  frosts  which  often 
occur  in  May,  and  even  in  June.  The  fruit  will  be  nourished 
by  every  shower  that  falls,  and  after  it  is  gathered  new 
growth  will  be  stimulated  and  a  store  of  vigour  imparted  to 
the  trees  for  the  following  year’s  crop. 
On  light  soils  the  land  in  Cherry  orchards  may  be  again 
dressed  with  salt  or  kainit,  and  on  heavier  soils  a  dressing 
of  20  bushels  of  soot,  or  5  cwts  of  basic  slag,  to  the  acre  in 
February,  will  be  of  infinite  value  to  the  trees  as  well  as  to 
the  grass.  The  same  system  will  also  renew  or  invigorate 
Plum,  Apple,  and  Pear  orchards,  but  the  boughs  should  be 
very  severely  thinned,  the  useless  spurs  removed,  and  the 
centre  of  the  heads  of  the  trees  kept  clear  and  regulated. 
In  renewing  old  Pear  trees  trained  on  walls  one  system 
is  to  cut  out  every  other  lateral  tier  6in  from  the  main  stem 
and  start  the  shoots  behind  the  cut  to  form  new  tiers.  After¬ 
wards,  the  remaining  worn-out  tiers  can  be  served  in  the 
same  way,  and  thus  the  tree  will  in  time  be  entirely  renewed 
with  young  wood.  In  cases  where  the  variety  is  only  second 
rate  (as  so  many  of  the  Pear  trees  are  that  were  planted 
some  fifty  years  back)  the  lateral  shoots  can  be  grafted  1ft 
from  the  main  stem,  and  in  two  years’  time  will  begin  to 
give  a  small  crop.  Supposing  a  tree  of  eight  tiers  of 
branches,  as  many  different  varieties  of  recognised  merit  can 
be  grafted  in,  or  the  tree  may  be  used  for  the  testing  of  new 
varieties,  and  in  this  manner  a  crop  can  be  relied  on  in  three 
or  even  two  years,  the  root  vigour  of  these  old  trees  being 
*  PapQr  re 'll!  on  .lannary  2S  1902,  by  George  Bunyawd,  V.M.H.,  at  the 
riveting  of  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society. 
