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"How to Dwarf Trees" (1902):
The florists of Europe are endeavouring to produce dwarf trees laden with the most diminutive oranges in imitation
of those grown in China and Japan, to supply the demand for the latest fad in floral decoration of the house.
These trees are about a foot to a foot and a half high, with fruit the size of a large strawberry, making charming
spots of colour in a room. The early trees of this species of dwarf orange were brought from China many
years ago, but it is only of late that they have become fashionable.
No people are so remarkable as the Chinese and Japanese for the minute care
and attention which they bestow upon their agricultural undertakings. They devote a good deal of time to
purely ornamental cultivation, and especially delight in the production of quaint and abnormal growth. Both
in Japan and China it is the custom to produce dwarf fruit trees. In many of the houses in Japan may be seen
tiny specimens of the orange tree which are seldom above 6in. in height and bear oranges only the size of a cherry,
which yet are sweet and palatable.
How these results are obtained appears now to be tolerably clear. The
production of dwarfs is indeed based upon one of the commonest principles of vegetable physiology, namely the
retardation of the flow of sap in the young trees. Where the dwarfs are raised from suckers, as is
frequently the case, main stem is in most cases twisted in zigzag form, which checks the free circulasion
[sic] of sap, but at the same time promotes the growth of the side branches that bear
fruit.
When the trees are grown from seeds these seeds are selected which are
themselves the smallest and which have been gathered from the smallest trees. The supply of water is reduced
to the smallest possible quantity, and as new branches are in the act of formation their growth is retarded in
various ways, the points of the leaders being generally nipped out.
Any vegetable monstrosity that is dwarfed in size has a sort of living death.
No shipwrecked crew cast away upon a raft, were ever put upon such a short allowance as a dwarf orange tree
which has been almost deprived of the necessaries of life. Sometimes the branches are bent or intertwined or
tied together in order to force them into some unnatural and grotesque position. By this means a tree is
given the appearance of great age.
No doubt the climate of both China and Japan favours to some extent the growth
of plants under these most unfavourable conditions, but there can be no question of the natives' superior skill in
this branch of arboriculture; in fact they have no real competitors in the art. Possibly this new fad will
extend to other flowers, fruits and plants that are capable of sustaining life on short allowance. Diminutive
strawberries are always of a better flavour than large ones. 1
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