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On fertilizing the blossoms of pear trees
172
On T'erliliziltg lhe Blossoms o f Pear Trees.
• • " • addmon "- bem~, " o. made without agxtat~on, and wxthont any material " to the moving power or draft. It seems, therefore, probable, t h a t , under certain modi.Scations of f
On 1,'ertilizing the Blossoms of Pear Trees.
By the R~zv, G~:onGE
SWAINE.
[From the Transactions of the London Horticultural Society,] As almost general unproductiveness as to the fruit o f tile superior varieties of pear trees~ has long been the subject of complaint with
Oa Fertilizing the Blossoms of Pear Trees,
173
~rticulturists, both of South and of North Britain. A m o n g t h e •st prizes offered by the Caledonian Horticultural Society, was 9!a¢ for the communication of the best means of bringing into a bearl~n~ ate, full grown fruit trees, especially some of the finest sorts o-~ tenth pears, which (it is stated,) though apparently in a very_ ~,althy and luxuriant condition, are yet in a state of almost tott~l trrenness;" and the president of the'London Horticultural Socie~y~ • -paper- on.the cult~vatlon " " of the pea r tree , remarks h~s . , tha t " .t e .'at tree exercises the patience of the planter during a longer period, :fore it produces fruit, than any other grafted tree which finds a ace in our gardens; and though it is subsequently very long lived, generally, when trained to a wall~ becomes, m a ery few years, lproductive of fruit." But I have no need, at least for my own ~nviction, to refer to the testimony of others tbr proof of the existgsgrievance, possessed as I am myself of a striking instance of i untoward disposition in an individual of the genus Pyrus, which is for a long time baffled all my atten~pts to alter its infertile tbits; it is that of a Gausell s Bergamot, wixtch has grown for twenty ~ars or more in its present situation, against a wall, part of which ~s a south-west, anti part a south-east aspect. This tree has atl the ~tppearance of health, atoll sufficient luxuriance, ad has been for several years constantly co~ered with a profusion blossoms at the proper season, but has never befiwe this borne ~re than three or four pea,'s in any one year, and most frequently ot a siragle one. It never occurred to my observation, before th~ ear 18~0, when I was much occupied in the artificial impreghation ! different kinds of fruits, that, out of fi'om nine or fewer, to fib ~en or more florets, of which the cluster (botanically corymbus) of le pear tree consists, only the three lower ones (generally speaking) ;t, or, in other words, are effectually impregnated for fruiting. ,ecollecting the practice of the best gardeners, of topping fl~ir ~rly beans, i. e. of pinching off with the fore-finger and thumb, the ppermost blossoms, some apparent, anti others in embryo, of the =ne,'al spike, for the ourpose of setting the lower and earliest onest hich would, otherwise, m most cases, pro e aborttve, I conC.O~v~0~! me removing the upper and central blossoms of the eorymbuS.~f le pear, as soon as it could conveniently be done, W0~il~[havre a milar good effect in invigorating the remaining ones, and~ausing tern to set with greater certainty. With this view, in the si~ring ~ 821, as soon as the three lower blossoms of the corymbi began t o ww their white faces, I set to work with my sharp-pointed scissors a two pear trees, the one the Gansell's Bergam0t above-mentioned, ad the other a Brown Beurr6' and in as short time as I could have voperly thinned two dozen bunches of grapes, I divested both these 'ees of at least three-fourths of all their budding honours. On the curt6, this operation subsequently appeared to have the best effecti w there was scarcely an instance in which the three remaining, blosnns did not set, which~afterwards produced the finest crop of pears have yet gathered ti'om that tree. But on the intractable Gansel[, though the blossoms at first seemed to seL and many nf them did
174
On Ferlilizing lhe Blossoms o f Pear Trees.
not fall off till midsummer, when they were nearly as large as common gooseberries, yet not a single pear arrived at maturity. 1Iv dissecting many of the largest of those which fell off last, and co~;.
perfections in the essential parts of the blossoms. In the following spring of 1 8 ~ , on attending to the blossoms of tiffs tree, which blooms earlier than any other pear tree which I have, they appeared to me to remain much longer in a globular state with. ou(expanding than any other variety o f pear which I have had an opportunity of noticing. I t:aneied, likewise, that the pointal was fit for impregnafon before the anthers were r)pe, and even before the petals expanded; and from the peculiarly slender and delicate make of the latter, as it struck me, I supposed that it ceased to be in a proper state as soon as it became exposed to the sun and air~ I therefore concluded, that there might possibly be a chance of obtaining fruit, by depriving the blossoms of their petals befc)re they expanded, and inclosing with each floret in this state, within a paper envelope (as is my mode of effecting artificial impreg)~ation,) a riper blossom, viz. one that had just begun to diffuse its farina, either one of its own, or, prethrahly, of some other variety of peat.. Accordingly, on the ~Tth of March, 18fl~, [began this operati0n, and in a clay'or two had tied up in ,the manner just mentioned, twenty-seven blossoms. 'I en of these envelopes contained blossoms of the Beurr~ pear, which (it not blooming so early as the Gansell) were the only ones I could-then find in a state of'expansion. Fourteen (to make up, with the fm'mer number, two dozen) contained blossom from the .same tree, and three blossoms of the pound pear. From the latter presenting a large and coarse appearance~ I had very little expectation. I intended to have done many more, but the weather getting colder, and being myself not quite in health, I neglected it till it was too late. The papers were not taken off till the 15th of Aprili on which day the weather began to be warmer, without sunshine. You will please to observe, that I had previously cut off from all the corymbi with which the tree was abundantly furnished in every part, all the blossoms, except the three h)wer ones, as in the former year; and that having tied up but one of these in each coQmbus, I immediately cut off the two remaining ones. The blossoms were operated on in different parts and aspects of the tree; for part of it, as I said before, thced the south-east, and ~art the south.~vest. Of the ten blossoms, treated with the Beurre pear, eight set, two of which afterwards fell of{~but I suspect not fairly, and six are now proceeding to maturity. One only of thefourteen, where its own blossoms were used, now remains. Of the three wherein the pound pear was concerned, the whole failed. The only pear now on the tree which set naturally, and on which no operation was performed, was produced on a cluster of blossoms, at the extremity of a leadi.n~ horizontal shoot of last year, which did not make its appearance till after the others had dropped off. This circumstance, by the way,
Mttn~lJ'aclure o f Ru,vsian ,~cenled Lealher.
! 75
proves that the fruiting buds of the pear do not invariably require three yea~s for their perfection, since the bud, naturaliy the ~n0st productive on the tree in question, could not have been Vi~SiS!~.iat hrthest, before the m~ddle of last summer. A s the pears a r e i n 6 ~ from fi*e and a half to seven and a half inches in circumference, I consider them as past all .dan.ger of failure, or rather, that they will ~ only fail through the apphcahon of violence. Three are in a f i n ~ witbin the space of twelve inches near the centre of the tree, and one is on a branch winch I considered, at the time of the oper~it{o0, to be the most unlikely to succeed, as being in the most exposed situation. Wl~e~her the result of the above detailed experiments be such as to authorize an expectation that artificial assistance in vegetable fecundation will hereafter become of so much importance to gardeners in the instances just alluded to. as in those at present recognised, af the cucumber, the melon, the e~,rly bean, and the hautbois strawberry, must be left to thturity to ascertain.
Report on the Prlze for the ~IanuJhcture of Scented Russian Leather. By M. MERI~EZ. [From the Bulletin de la Soeidtd &Encouragement.] GESTLg,~S, considerations, dictated by prudence, determined you to require a year's trial betbre adjudging the whole prize ofl~.red for the manufacture of odorous leather, possessing' all the quaiities of Russian leather. The time of trial is elapsed, your hopes are realized, new ef~brts have produced improvements, and Fra:ncO~ils now in possession of a process which was a desideratutn to 6ur in; dustrv. When your committee verified the experiments of Messrs. Grourelic and Dural-Dural, it was remarked, that particular precautioiiS were necessary in order to be able to impregnate the sk{ns,:Eiil~t)~.~¢ staining them, with the emDyreumatic oil, which rend ers:::the~6~]i~: ous. That oil, as it was'then obtained, was :fat, and ~ ~ei~:;(m~ ~ coloured. The method of distilling it has sinc6 beeri':im:~pr6veld~ The oil obtained at present is much thinner, and ~eo!o~rs's~'!i~tl~, that moroceos of the clearest shade may be str6nelv::impr(gh~ea W' " " ca,t ~ , ~th ~t w~thout losing any thing of' their ~brightness. ". :: .... Deceived by experiments w~ich he had not had :tim6 to carry far enough, M. Grouvelle had asserted, in the memoir Which he drew up, that the aromatic scent Of birch-oil does not exclusivel~ proceed from the resin to which M. Chevreul gave the name ot b~dtuline. The observations of your committee have induced him to make new experiments, which have led hit5 to find out, that if tl~e epidermis of the birch still affords scented oil aftbr a longdigestion in alcohol, it is because the last portion of the resin adheres so to the tissue of the epidermis~ and c~mnot be removed completely. M. Grouvelte,
On T'erliliziltg lhe Blossoms o f Pear Trees.
• • " • addmon "- bem~, " o. made without agxtat~on, and wxthont any material " to the moving power or draft. It seems, therefore, probable, t h a t , under certain modi.Scations of f
On 1,'ertilizing the Blossoms of Pear Trees.
By the R~zv, G~:onGE
SWAINE.
[From the Transactions of the London Horticultural Society,] As almost general unproductiveness as to the fruit o f tile superior varieties of pear trees~ has long been the subject of complaint with
Oa Fertilizing the Blossoms of Pear Trees,
173
~rticulturists, both of South and of North Britain. A m o n g t h e •st prizes offered by the Caledonian Horticultural Society, was 9!a¢ for the communication of the best means of bringing into a bearl~n~ ate, full grown fruit trees, especially some of the finest sorts o-~ tenth pears, which (it is stated,) though apparently in a very_ ~,althy and luxuriant condition, are yet in a state of almost tott~l trrenness;" and the president of the'London Horticultural Socie~y~ • -paper- on.the cult~vatlon " " of the pea r tree , remarks h~s . , tha t " .t e .'at tree exercises the patience of the planter during a longer period, :fore it produces fruit, than any other grafted tree which finds a ace in our gardens; and though it is subsequently very long lived, generally, when trained to a wall~ becomes, m a ery few years, lproductive of fruit." But I have no need, at least for my own ~nviction, to refer to the testimony of others tbr proof of the existgsgrievance, possessed as I am myself of a striking instance of i untoward disposition in an individual of the genus Pyrus, which is for a long time baffled all my atten~pts to alter its infertile tbits; it is that of a Gausell s Bergamot, wixtch has grown for twenty ~ars or more in its present situation, against a wall, part of which ~s a south-west, anti part a south-east aspect. This tree has atl the ~tppearance of health, atoll sufficient luxuriance, ad has been for several years constantly co~ered with a profusion blossoms at the proper season, but has never befiwe this borne ~re than three or four pea,'s in any one year, and most frequently ot a siragle one. It never occurred to my observation, before th~ ear 18~0, when I was much occupied in the artificial impreghation ! different kinds of fruits, that, out of fi'om nine or fewer, to fib ~en or more florets, of which the cluster (botanically corymbus) of le pear tree consists, only the three lower ones (generally speaking) ;t, or, in other words, are effectually impregnated for fruiting. ,ecollecting the practice of the best gardeners, of topping fl~ir ~rly beans, i. e. of pinching off with the fore-finger and thumb, the ppermost blossoms, some apparent, anti others in embryo, of the =ne,'al spike, for the ourpose of setting the lower and earliest onest hich would, otherwise, m most cases, pro e aborttve, I conC.O~v~0~! me removing the upper and central blossoms of the eorymbuS.~f le pear, as soon as it could conveniently be done, W0~il~[havre a milar good effect in invigorating the remaining ones, and~ausing tern to set with greater certainty. With this view, in the si~ring ~ 821, as soon as the three lower blossoms of the corymbi began t o ww their white faces, I set to work with my sharp-pointed scissors a two pear trees, the one the Gansell's Bergam0t above-mentioned, ad the other a Brown Beurr6' and in as short time as I could have voperly thinned two dozen bunches of grapes, I divested both these 'ees of at least three-fourths of all their budding honours. On the curt6, this operation subsequently appeared to have the best effecti w there was scarcely an instance in which the three remaining, blosnns did not set, which~afterwards produced the finest crop of pears have yet gathered ti'om that tree. But on the intractable Gansel[, though the blossoms at first seemed to seL and many nf them did
174
On Ferlilizing lhe Blossoms o f Pear Trees.
not fall off till midsummer, when they were nearly as large as common gooseberries, yet not a single pear arrived at maturity. 1Iv dissecting many of the largest of those which fell off last, and co~;.
perfections in the essential parts of the blossoms. In the following spring of 1 8 ~ , on attending to the blossoms of tiffs tree, which blooms earlier than any other pear tree which I have, they appeared to me to remain much longer in a globular state with. ou(expanding than any other variety o f pear which I have had an opportunity of noticing. I t:aneied, likewise, that the pointal was fit for impregnafon before the anthers were r)pe, and even before the petals expanded; and from the peculiarly slender and delicate make of the latter, as it struck me, I supposed that it ceased to be in a proper state as soon as it became exposed to the sun and air~ I therefore concluded, that there might possibly be a chance of obtaining fruit, by depriving the blossoms of their petals befc)re they expanded, and inclosing with each floret in this state, within a paper envelope (as is my mode of effecting artificial impreg)~ation,) a riper blossom, viz. one that had just begun to diffuse its farina, either one of its own, or, prethrahly, of some other variety of peat.. Accordingly, on the ~Tth of March, 18fl~, [began this operati0n, and in a clay'or two had tied up in ,the manner just mentioned, twenty-seven blossoms. 'I en of these envelopes contained blossoms of the Beurr~ pear, which (it not blooming so early as the Gansell) were the only ones I could-then find in a state of'expansion. Fourteen (to make up, with the fm'mer number, two dozen) contained blossom from the .same tree, and three blossoms of the pound pear. From the latter presenting a large and coarse appearance~ I had very little expectation. I intended to have done many more, but the weather getting colder, and being myself not quite in health, I neglected it till it was too late. The papers were not taken off till the 15th of Aprili on which day the weather began to be warmer, without sunshine. You will please to observe, that I had previously cut off from all the corymbi with which the tree was abundantly furnished in every part, all the blossoms, except the three h)wer ones, as in the former year; and that having tied up but one of these in each coQmbus, I immediately cut off the two remaining ones. The blossoms were operated on in different parts and aspects of the tree; for part of it, as I said before, thced the south-east, and ~art the south.~vest. Of the ten blossoms, treated with the Beurre pear, eight set, two of which afterwards fell of{~but I suspect not fairly, and six are now proceeding to maturity. One only of thefourteen, where its own blossoms were used, now remains. Of the three wherein the pound pear was concerned, the whole failed. The only pear now on the tree which set naturally, and on which no operation was performed, was produced on a cluster of blossoms, at the extremity of a leadi.n~ horizontal shoot of last year, which did not make its appearance till after the others had dropped off. This circumstance, by the way,
Mttn~lJ'aclure o f Ru,vsian ,~cenled Lealher.
! 75
proves that the fruiting buds of the pear do not invariably require three yea~s for their perfection, since the bud, naturaliy the ~n0st productive on the tree in question, could not have been Vi~SiS!~.iat hrthest, before the m~ddle of last summer. A s the pears a r e i n 6 ~ from fi*e and a half to seven and a half inches in circumference, I consider them as past all .dan.ger of failure, or rather, that they will ~ only fail through the apphcahon of violence. Three are in a f i n ~ witbin the space of twelve inches near the centre of the tree, and one is on a branch winch I considered, at the time of the oper~it{o0, to be the most unlikely to succeed, as being in the most exposed situation. Wl~e~her the result of the above detailed experiments be such as to authorize an expectation that artificial assistance in vegetable fecundation will hereafter become of so much importance to gardeners in the instances just alluded to. as in those at present recognised, af the cucumber, the melon, the e~,rly bean, and the hautbois strawberry, must be left to thturity to ascertain.
Report on the Prlze for the ~IanuJhcture of Scented Russian Leather. By M. MERI~EZ. [From the Bulletin de la Soeidtd &Encouragement.] GESTLg,~S, considerations, dictated by prudence, determined you to require a year's trial betbre adjudging the whole prize ofl~.red for the manufacture of odorous leather, possessing' all the quaiities of Russian leather. The time of trial is elapsed, your hopes are realized, new ef~brts have produced improvements, and Fra:ncO~ils now in possession of a process which was a desideratutn to 6ur in; dustrv. When your committee verified the experiments of Messrs. Grourelic and Dural-Dural, it was remarked, that particular precautioiiS were necessary in order to be able to impregnate the sk{ns,:Eiil~t)~.~¢ staining them, with the emDyreumatic oil, which rend ers:::the~6~]i~: ous. That oil, as it was'then obtained, was :fat, and ~ ~ei~:;(m~ ~ coloured. The method of distilling it has sinc6 beeri':im:~pr6veld~ The oil obtained at present is much thinner, and ~eo!o~rs's~'!i~tl~, that moroceos of the clearest shade may be str6nelv::impr(gh~ea W' " " ca,t ~ , ~th ~t w~thout losing any thing of' their ~brightness. ". :: .... Deceived by experiments w~ich he had not had :tim6 to carry far enough, M. Grouvelle had asserted, in the memoir Which he drew up, that the aromatic scent Of birch-oil does not exclusivel~ proceed from the resin to which M. Chevreul gave the name ot b~dtuline. The observations of your committee have induced him to make new experiments, which have led hit5 to find out, that if tl~e epidermis of the birch still affords scented oil aftbr a longdigestion in alcohol, it is because the last portion of the resin adheres so to the tissue of the epidermis~ and c~mnot be removed completely. M. Grouvelte,