Medium Trees On Medium Walls

For walls which are only 8 or 10 feet high, we think what we have already called medium trees are most suitable. Trees on free stocks, especially where the soil is good and deep, are apt to produce too much wood to be fruitful when unduly restricted in growth, unless this restriction is caused by systematic root-pruning and root-lifting. It is better to attain the desired conditions of restricted growth by having the trees on Paradise stocks. The Paradise requires much less root-pruning to induce the roots to become fibry and keep near the surface than the seedling Apple or even the Crab, and hence its desirability for medium-sized trees.

Either fan or horizontal training may be followed, as in the case of large trees - but we certainly prefer fan-training. In either case the treatment required is just the same as with large trees. Pinching, pruning, and root-pruning should also be done on the very same principle and in the same way as we advised for trees in the open. If the directions given for medium trees in the open quarters are studied, along with the directions for training and otherwise treating large trees on walls, no need will be required to particularise the details of cultivating these smaller trees on walls.

Dwarf Trees On Low Walls

As we have before said, we do not recommend pigmy trees, except for covering low walls, which might otherwise not be utilised at all. We have often seen long walls round spade-cultivated land which were quite bare. When the walls are low and limited in extent, we certainly advise cottagers and villa owners or occupiers to plant the necessary quantity of Red and Black Currants and Gooseberry-bushes against them; but where there is a greater extent of low wall than is required for these fruits, we would not hesitate a moment to advise the planting of them with dwarf Apple-trees. If good bearing kinds are planted, abundant crops may be expected from what would otherwise be wasted space.

Such trees should be planted 4, 5, or 6 feet apart, on walls from 5 to 7 feet high, and they are, we think, best trained perpendicularly. In forming them, the centre shoot of a maiden tree should be cut quite close down, and two shoots allowed to spring. These are to be laid in horizontally, and cut back so as to make them push shoots, which are to be trained perpendicularly, at about 9 to 12 inches apart. Cutting back at the winter pruning, and pinching in summer, must be practised in the same way and for the same reason as dwarfs in the open border are so treated. Root-pruning and root-feeding must also be attended to in the same way.

Five or six branches should be led up from trees on walls 4 feet high and under, but four branches will be sufficient for trees on walls 7 feet high. In both cases the number of square feet allowed to each will be almost the same, although the trees will require to be closer together on the higher walls.

Cordon Trees

Of late years cordon trees have become fashionable, and by their use a wall may be rapidly clothed with bearing wood. They may either be single or double, or indeed triple or quadruple for that part of it; but they are more commonly single or double. On high walls they are generally trained straight up; on low walls, they are generally trained obliquely. A low wall may thus be made as suitable for a cordon tree as a high one. We need not give special directions for their cultivation; the principles laid down before apply here, and only require some modification.

Espalier Trees are trained and treated in exactly the same way as wall-trees, and are fastened to wire or wood espaliers instead of walls. We may add that common wire painted is considered better than galvanised wire - many cultivators alleging that electricity plays on the galvanised wire, and destroys the shoots which are tied to it.

Replacing Bad Kinds

It too often happens that when trees begin to. bear they are found to be untrue to name, and it is seldom that the misnamed kind is a better one than what was ordered. Sometimes, often indeed, utterly worthless kinds are sent instead. Sometimes kinds which either won't bear at all, or bear fruit that does not ripen, are sent. This causes much disappointment, and often such trees are regretfully dug out and replaced with young ones. A better plan, if the trees are healthy, is to graft them with suitable kinds. Not only is the risk of again planting misnamed sorts avoided, but especially, in the case of wall-trees, the space will be much sooner filled up.

The operation is in itself simple. In order to insure success, the necessary shoots which are to be engrafted on to the tree - young ones - should be removed from the trees while they are still dormant, and put into the soil like cuttings, in a shady place, and there left till needed. The trees to be grafted should be allowed to swell their buds before being operated upon. In the case of wall-trees, each branch should be cut back to within 4 inches from where it starts, and there grafted. Branches not thicker than one's finger should be whip-grafted, but if much thicker, crown - grafting is more suitable. In putting on whip-grafts, the inside bark of the stock and scion should correspond along one side, and at the end at least, for there the junction takes place. When the operation is complete, the scion should be carefully bound in its place with soft matting, and then covered over with half an inch of good clay (well worked and mixed with one-third of horse-droppings or chopped hay to make it hold on, as plaster does when mixed with hair). To insure its sticking, rub a quarter of an inch over the matting, and when that adheres, put on another quarter, and finish the whole with hands dipped in water, which will enable the operator to put on a smooth surface.

When carefully done, the clay very seldom falls off. Grafting mixtures, to be used instead of clay, are sold, and these have the advantage of being cleaner. Directions for use accompany each box.

Those who wish may raise their own trees. The simplest way of doing this is to sow the seeds of hardy kinds early in spring, and to nurse the trees until they are the thickness of one's fore-finger, when they may be grafted by whip-grafting. The seeds from fine kinds are not so good for stocks as the hardy kinds, and seeds from American Apples are of no use at all, for nine out of every ten will prove too tender. If Crab seeds are to be had, they should be treated similarly. When the seedlings are one year old, they require planting into nursery-beds 6 inches apart in the row, and 2 feet between the rows. In transplanting, always cut off the point of the tap-root, to induce the formation of fibry roots. Paradise and Doucin stocks are propagated by cuttings of the ripe wood, put in on a shady border in sandy soil any time during winter. These stocks may be had, from those nurserymen who deal in them, very cheaply by the 100 or 1000. Bits of roots from established trees may be used on an emergency, when no other stocks are at hand, and valuable grafts in the possession of the grower. The more fibres there are on the roots, the better will be the chance of success.

Care should be taken not to allow the roots to get dry while they are out of the ground.

Moss And Lichens On Apple-Trees

Old trees often get covered over with lichens and moss, which exert an evil influence on the trees' health. They should be cleaned from these, by scraping them with some blunt iron' instrument, and then dusting the branches over, while they are damp, with newly-slaked lime. Lime, when applied hot, is death to lichens and mosses'; but, when trees are badly affected, it is quite necessary to scrape them before applying the lime - otherwise it will have no chance of properly doing its work.

American Blight

Sometimes this pest attacks Apple-trees in this country. If left to itself it does a deal of mischief. When it makes its appearance the most economical plan is to attack it at once, for if it is allowed to spread, its destruction will prove a serious matter. It is easiest got at in winter, and just damping the places where it lodges on the branches with paraffin-oil is the most effectual way of destroying it. This means a great deal of careful anointing in the case of old, badly infested trees, but it is easily got rid of in the case of young ones.

Canker

Some varieties of trees are much more liable to this disease than others. Indeed some sorts are never attacked, even on unfavourable soils; while in the best of soils, and under the very best system of cultivation, others cannot be kept free of it. For instance, Hawthorn-den (which, if it could be kept free of canker, would be the best Apple in cultivation for the million) generally dies outright when the tree gets to be over a score of years old, especially when its roots are allowed to penetrate into a cold or otherwise unfavourable subsoil. The only prevention, and that but a partial one, comparatively speaking, is to keep the roots well in hand near the surface, and in healthy well-drained soil. When it is determined to grow some favourite sort, which is yet liable to canker, it is well to have young trees nursing on somewhere, to take the place of those which may die or become unsightly from canker. In our selection of varieties we have named only those which we have found to grow healthily on a variety of soils. We make an exception in the case of Hawthornden. The fact is, it is a favourite of ours.

It never, in ordinary circumstances, makes a full-grown orchard tree, and for medium trees it should be grafted on a free stock, for it bears so freely from the very first, that there is no difficulty in keeping it dwarf - the difficulty lies the other way. We once saw half-a-dozen of this kind on the Doucin, and they could not be got to grow at all; so even for the dwarfest trees nothing more dwarfing than the Paradise (English) should be used for this variety.

Gathering And Storing The Fruit

Little requires to be said under this head. Each kind should be gathered as it becomes ripe, and in gathering care should be taken not to bruise the fruit. In storing it, it should be spread carefully and thinly in a dry airy room, and care should be taken to keep frost away.