FRUIT GARDEN.
During the last thirty years the desire for fruit has greatly increased among the inhabitants of this country, and the attention paid to its production has advanced in proportion. The general diffusion of this taste has created such a demand in the ma.
tropolis and principal towns, that not only are pro fessional cultivators enabled to lay out considerable ' capitals with advantage in the raising of exotic fruits, but great encouragement is thus given to private gentlemen to improve and enlarge their gar dens, vineries, and peach-houses; because a ready and- lucrative market is open for the superfluous produce at any time, and for the whole produce of the garden, when the proprietor and his family hap pen to be from home. We shall first advert to any changes or improvements in the general management of the garden, or of the different kinds of hot-houses connected with it ; and shall next take particular notice of the new fruits, or new varieties, which have been lately introduced, or have lately risen in to notice.
Fruit-Trees in the Nursery.
Some kinds of fruit-trees, particularly the Mul •berry and Walnut, are so slow in their progress to a bearing state, that the planter of the trees seldom sees their fruit. Mr Knight has ascertained that, if the cions be taken from prolific branches of bearing trees, the young trees become productive in a very fel., years. Indeed, if the stocks be planted in pots, and grafted by approach, they afford fruit in three years after the operation. Young trees thus graft ed with cions from the bearing wood of adult trees, are not yet to be found in the public nurseries; -even the most eminent of our nurserymen not pos sessing a collection of bearing trees for this pur pose.
In regard to the training of young trees, especi ally of the peach and pear kinds, notice may be taken of an excellent and simple mode for which we are indebted to Mr Knight. His plants are headed down as usual, a year after being grafted; two shoots only are allowed to each stem, and these are trained to an elevation of about 5°. It is a well -known fact in horticulture, that a branch trained upright grows much more luxuriantly than one confined to a horizontal position. Advantage is here taken of this law of vegetation, and in order to procure the shoots to be of equal length, the stronger is depressed and the weaker elevated. All
lateral shoots are carefully removed. Next season as many branches are encouraged as can be laid in without oversbading each other; and if care be ta ken in the spring to select the strongest and earliest buds near the termination of the year-old branches, to be trained lowest, and the weakest and latest buds near the base of the branches to be trained in clining upwards, the result is, that, at the end of the season, each annual shoot conies to be nearly of equal vigour. In the following winter, one half of the shoots are shortened, and the other half left at full length, one shoot being left and the other cut, alternately. In the third year, if the subject be a peach-tree, the central part will consist of bearing wood. The size and general health, and equality of vigour in every part, of young trees trained ec cording to these rules, appear to evince a very re gular distribution of the sap ; and the rules are sin]. ple, and might may be attended to.
Wall Training..
As the trees above described advance, they natu rally fall to be trained in. what is called the fan mode, or according to various modifications of this. Where the garden-walls exceed seven feet in height, this is the mode now preferred by the best practical gardeners; for in this way a tree can much sooner be made to fill the space of wall allotted to it, and the loss of a branch can most easily be supplied at any time. The fan mode is particularly well adapted for such kinds of fruit-trees as do not abound in superfluous wood, or extend their branches to a great length, as the peacb, nectarine, apricot, and cherry trees. For walls under seven feet in height, the horizontal method of training is still preferred, as in this way the wall can be more completely filled, although not in so short a space of time. In this Mode, which was first strongly recommended by Hitt in his excellent Treatise on Fruit-Trees, a prin cipal stem is trained upright, and branches are led from it horizontally on either side. Many kinds of' pear-trees, and also apple-trees, are very produc tive when trained in this horizontal manner.