FACTS FOR FARMERS. PRUNING TO INDUCE FRUITFULNESS.

Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 179, 1 July 1873, Page 2

FACTS FOR FARMERS. PRUNING TO INDUCE FRUITFULNESS.

The most successful of modern European fruit-growers, Mr Rivers, adopts a system of root-prnning the advantages of which arc thus- described by him t — " 1. Tho facility of thiuning (owing to the small size of the trees)," ami, in sonio varieties, of setting the blossoms of shy-bearing sorts, and of thinning and gathering the fruit. " 2. It will make tho gardener independent of the natural soil of his garden, a* a fevr barrowsfyl of rich mould will support n tree for a lengthened period, thus placing bod soils nearly on a level with those the most favourable. " 3. The capability of removing trees of fifteen or twenty years' growth, with os much facility as furniture. To tenants this will indeed be a boon, for perhaps one of the greatest annoyances a tenant is subject to is that of being obliged to leave behind him trees that he has nurtured with th« utmost care." In conclusion, Mp Rivers recommends caution : " enough of vigour must baleWm the tree to support its crop of fruit, and on^, two, 'fir three seasons* cessation from root pruning will ofttm bo found, necessary." Eoot pruning in £his country will, we think, be found most valuable in its application to common standard trees which are thrifty, but bear little or no fruit. They will generally be found to require but a single pruning to bring them into a permanently fruitful condition ; and some sorts of apples and plums, which so not usually give a fair crop till they are twelve or fourteen years old, may be brought into fruit by this means as soon as they are of proper size. Shortening — in the shoot of poaches, nectarines, and apricots, as we shall hereafter point out, has a strong tendency to increase the fruitfulness of these trees, since, by reducing ■ the young wood, the sap accumulates in the remainder of the branchee, and many bearing shoots are produced instead of one. And the Snglish practice of " spurring-in," which ; consists in annually shortening the lateral shoots of trained pears, apples, and tho like, in order te d ake them grow out short fruit branches, or spurs, is founded on the same principle. Bending down the Hmb3 is an easy and simple means of throwing snpli branches directly into fruit. By tbis means the i i culi im is retained, rapid growth ceases, organizable matter accumulates, and fruit-buds, as before stated, are sure to follow. Tfio limbs are bent wbjie flexible, early in the season, and tied down below a horizontal line until they retain of themselves their new position. When this can be 1 aaiily applied it is a never-failing mode of rendering such branches fruitful. It is stated in London' $ Gardeners' Magazine that " a very large crop of pears was obtained by the Rev Mr Fisher, in Buckinghamshire, from trees which had not borne at all," by twisting and bending down the young roots, late in the autumn, when the wood had becomo tough : and the pendant branches afterwards continued perfectly healthy." Ringing, which is nothing more than stopping the descending sap iv a biaiieh, and forcing it to organise blossom buds, by taking olf u a ring of bark, say a fourth or half an inch, near midsummer, is a mode always more or less injurious lo the health of tho branch, and if carried to any extent, finally destroys the tree. It is gradually falling into disuse, since root pruning, and other and better modes, are becoming known. A ligatuie or bandage tightly applied to the limb, vrill hare temporarily the same effect at ringing, without so much injury to the branch. t ,

At Lincoln, on Thursday, John Start, a survivor from the wreck of the Northfleet, was tried for burglary. On July, 14th, 1870, the house of Mr Kenrick, a merchant at Horncastle, was broken into, and a quantity of his clothes stolen. The prisoner was nVwoi-k at Mr Kenrick's on the evening of the burglary, and the evidence clearly showed that h© was defiling with the clothes within twenty-four hours after they had been stolen. The defence was that after the lapse of nearly three years no one could remember tho man. The police had vainly rrulfftvoured to diicover the prisoner until the wreck of the North fleet, when a public subscription was got up for the survivors, and the name John. Start, Hornenstle, appeared in the 'list. The jury found the prisoner guilty. He was sentenced to fiftee.i month's hard labour. Tin 1 prisoner said he was wron<rfullv convicted. Rkvknge is Swbet. — A nmu recently had reason to believe that his wood pile was disappearing more rapidly titan it ought, even in a Vermont winter, and accordingly doctored a certain stick, and put it iv a convenient position for abstraction. Nejct morning there wts an explosion in his neighbor's cooking-stove that sent tho hash and buckwheat cakes flying übout very promiscuously. —^American vajaer.

It may happen that goad i* produced by rice, but not ni rice ; for instance, a robber may take money from it§ owner, and give it to one who will make better use of it. Here is good produced ; but not by tho robbery as robbery, but »b » mdden tr»nfl»tion of property.