1897.] 77 



A BOOK ON FRUIT TREES. 



Fruit Culture for Amateurs. By S. G. Wright. With an ap- 

 pendix on Insect and other Pests injurious to Fruit Trees by W. D. 

 DURY. Pp. 244. 146 figs, in text. London : 1,. Upcott Gill, 1897. 

 Price 3^. 6d. 



A most useful work for those who take an interest in gardening work, 

 and who wish to obtain reliable information on the best kind of fruit- 

 trees to plant, how to plant them, and how to treat them when planted. 

 Indeed so complete are the lists, and so extended are the many cultural 

 directions which are given, that others besides those for whom the 

 book portends to have been specially written, may, when seeking 

 information, unhesitatingly turn to the pages of this work. Amateurs 

 in the strict sense of the term may feel somewhat puzzled and dis- 

 heartened at the length of some of the lists of "suitable varieties," which 

 we think might have been somewhat curtailed, or a second and much 

 reduced list of the best and most prolific varieties, for small gardens, 

 might with advantage have been added. Thus in the list of apples, some 

 of the varieties do not as a rule succeed particularly well in Irish gardens, 

 whereas Echlinville, Peasgood Nonsuch, Bramley's Seedling, Golden 

 Noble, New Hawthornden, are kitchen varieties which may be relied on 

 to grow in almost any soil and situation. The author wisely draws 

 attention to the pleasure and profit which can be derived from covering 

 waste wall- spaces with suitable fruit-trees. On the Continent, especially 

 in France and in Belgium, this point receives great attention, and fine 

 crops of first-rate fruit are harvested from trees covering unsightly walls 

 of outhouses, stables, barns, and buildings of all sorts. Such crops 

 could be equally well obtained in Ireland. 



Another point we are glad to note receives due prominence is the 

 great importance of summer pruning of fruit-trees, and it is no 

 exaggeration to say that it is of much more importance than the winter 

 pruning, although in so many cases summer pruning is totally neglected. 

 In this, as in all other cases, if the directions given by the author be 

 followed, there will be no longer necessity for the complaint so often 

 heard—" My fruit-trees never bear any fruit." The concluding portion 

 of the book is occupied with a list of " Insect and other fruit Pests," 

 which greatly adds to its general usefulness, more especially as means 

 of combating and destroying these " Insects and other Pests " are given. 

 Mr. Wright's name is well known in England as that of a good practical 

 gardener and a successful fruit-grower, and he has embodied the result 

 of many years work and observ'ation in the book now before us, thereby 

 earning the thanks of all who ' ake practical interest in such matters. 



F. W. M. 



