those which are of a more moderate growth will attain that height the following year. For dwarfs, as I have observed before, those which are obtained by grafting are to be preferred. The Common stock possesses sufficient vigour, if planted on a good soil, to throw up its shoot standard high the first year after cutting down, and may be budded the second either with Apricots or the weaker growing Plums : these make not only handsome but durable standards. DAMSONS AND BULLACE. The Prune Damsons and White Bullace should be budded upon the Muscle stock, as they succeed much better upon it than upon any other. If budded nine inches from the ground, upon vigorous stocks, they will grow five or six feet high the first year, and make fine standards the year following; or they may be budded standard high upon stocks which have been cut down for the purpose, the same as directed for standard Peaches and Nectarines. Pruning and Training. Open Standards. Open standards of Plums should be chosen, such as are straight and clean in their stems, with regular heads of four equally strong well-placed shoots. If the trees have been planted in the autumn, they will, by the following April, have made fresh roots, and their buds will begin to push ; they must at this time be headed down to three or four inches, after which they will furnish. three or four others from each shoot. If, however, at the next winter pruning a sufficient number cannot be selected to form the head, the best must be selected and cut down again as before, which, if the tree be in a state of health, must furnish abundance for the purpose. The best of those being selected, they must be allowed to grow at their full length, without ever shortening them again, unless through some accident there should be a vacancy in the head which requires to be filled up. Standards, when thus fully established, require nothing further than to be looked over from time to time, in order to remove any superfluous shoots, or such others as may, by their further growth, be likely to injure others. Espaliers. Espalier Plums are to be formed precisely upon the same principle as espalier Pears, having a central upright stem with horizontal branches issuing from each side; these should be trained at nine inches apart, except in such sorts as are of a very slender wiry growth, in which they may be somewhat nearer. The branches of Plums require to be continued at length, without ever shortening the leading shoot, and their spurs should be managed as directed for Pears, except in the first pruning in the summer, when the foreright and side shoots must be shortened to one inch instead of two, as they are not so likely to throw out additional shoots from these artificial spurs in the same season. Some of the strongest, however, of these spurs will be likely to make a second shoot, which must, in the second pruning, be cut off below the eye whence it originated; never shortening a second shoot like the first, as a repetition of this alone causes the spurs, in every description of espalier and wall tree, to be what are termed bushheaded, instead of having any tendency to acquire a more natural character: they are at all times unsightly, and never productive of fruit. Plums against Walls. The wall tree may, in all cases, be considered as an espalier, having the wall for its support, without any reference to its influence in the ripening of its fruit, hence the term espalier is applied by the French, not as by us, but “to a tree fixed against a wall in the form of a fan;" to this we are indebted, probably, for our method of fan-training, as it is now applied to the Peach, the Nectarine, the Apricot, and the Morello Cherry. Plums, when trained against the wall, require the same management as our English espalier,' the same horizontal method of training being pursued. When Plum trees have been neglected for a length of time, and their spurs become long, naked, and unproductive, the latter may, if the trees are sound, be removed by the same method as directed for the Pear; that of heading them down. When the young shoots are long enough to be nailed to the wall, two of the strongest and best placed from each shortened limb must be selected and trained as before, till the next winter pruning, when the best of the two must be selected and continued at its full length, cutting the other away. The spurs must be managed also as directed for the espalier, and in other respects the treatment must be the same. INDEX TO THE PLUMS. Abricotée 43 Apricot 43 1 Black Morocco 6 Grosse Reine Claude Blue Gage 1 Hampton Court Blue Perdrigon 2 Howell's Large Brignole 44 Imperatrice Brignole Jaune 44 Imperatrice Blanche Bury Seedling 45 Imperatrice Violette Caledonian 28* Imperial Catalonian 49 Imperiall Cherry 13 Imperiale Blanche Cheston 14 Imperial Diadem. Cloth of Gold ..47 Imperiale Violette Coe's 45 Italian Damask Coe's Golden Drop 45 Jaune Hâtive Coe's Imperial 45 Kirke's Damas d’Italie 23 La Delicieuse Damas Violet 37 La Royale Dame Aubert 54 Little Queen Claude Dauphine 10 Lucombe's Nonsuch Diaper 15 Maitre Claude Diaprée Rouge 15 Matchless Diaprée Violette 38 Mimms 47 Monsieur Early Amber 48 Monsieur Hâtif Early Black Damask 6 Monsieur Tardif Early Damask 6 Morocco Early Morocco 6 Nectarine Early Orleans 16 New Golden Drop Early Red Primordian 17 New Washington Early Tours 7 Noire de Montreuil Early Violet 9 Nutmeg Egg 59 Orleans Fair's Golden Drop 45 Perdrigon Fotheringham 18 Perdrigon Blanc Franklin 53 Perdrigon Rouge German Prune 19 Perdrigon Violet Goliath 20 Petit Damas Blanc Great Damask Violet 3 Petite Reine Claude Green Gage 10 Précoce de Tours Gros Damas de Tours 3 Prune d'Altesse Grosse Luisante 54 Prune Damson Grosse Noire Hâtive 4 Prune de Brignole 10 16 • 28* 21 58 21 33 33 59 22 33 23 49 5 24 25 11 12 50 14 26 51 47 13 27 28 30 6 28* 45 53 40 29 2 60 34 39 56 11 7 30 8 44 57 Prune de Catalogne 49 Violet Damask 37 49 Violet Diaper 38 . 28* Violette Hâtive 9 • 30 Violet Perdrigon 39 13 Virginian Cherry 13 31 Washington 53 32 Wentworth 54 19 Wheat 40 19 Wheaten 40 29 White Bullace 55 15 White Damask 56 33 White Damson 34 White Holland 59 17 White Imperatrice 58 31 White Imperial 59 White Magnum Bonum 59 42 White Mirable 25 White Mogul 59 35 White Perdrigon 60 36 White Primordian 49 52 White Prune Damson 57 52 Whitton 40 20 Wilmot's Early Orleans 41 18 Wilmot's Late Orleans 41 30 Wilmot's New Early Orleans 41 10 Wilmot's Orleans 41 9 Winesour 42 51 51 CHAP. XIX. QUINCES. MR. MILLER has three varieties of the Quince, the only hardy kinds known in this country, viz. 1. CYDONIA OBLONGA. PEAR-SHAPED QUINCE. Leaves oblong-ovate. Fruit lengthened at the base. 2. CYDONIA MALIFORMIS. APPLE-SHAPED Quince. Leaves ovate. Fruit rounder than that of the last. 3. CYDONIA LUSITANICA. PORTUGAL QUINCE. Leaves obovate. Fruit oblong. |
Get this book in print
0 Reviews Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified Write review |