1873. ] THE APPLE : ITS CULTURE AND VARIETIES. CHAPTER I. 9 



broad, and coloured on one side ; both, wlien in good condition, are excellent 

 parents of stocks, and the trees -worked upon them are generally durable. 



I hope to be able, further on, to note some of the effects of the above stocks ; 

 but for the present, in returning to the subject more immediately before us, it 

 may be stated that neither of these is adapted for the purposes of the amateur 

 with a limited space, so that we must fall back on the third sort, the Paradise 

 Stock, about which there appears to be some degree of uncertainty, which I have 

 never seen rightly cleared up. Whether they are solely the produce of seed of 

 the White Paradise Apple, or Avhether grown indiscriminately from Codlin pips, 

 as described by an old author, is not quite clear to me, and is probabl}- immaterial 

 to our purpose, as it is sufficient for the amateur to know that there are three 

 kinds of Paradise stock in use, namely, the English Paradise, the Dutch Paradise, 

 and the French Paradise or Doucin, all of which have their advocates, and are, 

 no doubt, excellent in their way, and all of which possess the property, which is 

 all-important to the amateur, of restricting a luxuriant growth, and indiicing a 

 fruitful habit — in other words, having the effect of dwarfing the tree, so that it 

 carries on all its functions in a small compass. It is, however, curious to observe 

 that although the use of these stocks stunts the growth of the tree, the size of 

 the fruit is in no way deteriorated, but, on the contrarj^, it is often larger than 

 that produced on more free-growing stocks. In purchasing, therefore, care must 

 be taken to secure trees on the Paradise Stock. 



The next thing to be taken into consideration is the situation in which it is 

 intended to plant the trees, regarding which it is immaterial whether they are to 

 be placed in a quarter by themselves or near the edges of the walks round the 

 garden. The latter is, however, preferable, as the trees are then more easily 

 manipulated, and they are also in such situations more ornamental, and a source 

 of greater pleasure to the owner, who can at any time stroll round his walks, 

 watch the various stages of development, and apply the necessary pruning and 

 pinching-back without much treading on the soil. In either case, whether in 

 one large quarter or in a marginal border, there will be the same need of a 

 careful preparation of the soil. If it be a friable loam of good quality, deep, 

 and with a naturally well-drained subsoil, the only preparation needed will be a 

 thorough trenching up to a depth of two feet, this manipulation not being con- 

 fined to the holes in which the trees are to be planted, but extended to the 

 whole of the quarter in which the trees are to be planted. If they are to be 

 placed as marginal trees near the walks, a width of six feet at least from the 

 edge of the walk, should be thus trenched up. But if the soil is shallow and the 

 subsoil either stiff clay and very wet, or hard rock, or poor sand, the surface- 

 soil should be thrown on one side, and the subsoil removed to the entire depth 

 of two feet. If clayey and wet, an additional trench down the centre, a good 

 foot in depth, and one foot wide, should be taken out and filled with broken 

 bricks or clean stones, and this drain should be continued to some convenient 

 outlet. It may be asked, why not use drain pipes ? Simply because in a very 



