330 THE FLOEAL WORLD A:!?D GARDEN GUIDE. 



they were rather poor ; in 18G7 they were poor. The seasons have 

 a more marked effect on tender fruits grown without protection than 

 on those that are more favourably situated. In the autuam of 1805 

 I went to Strood to see the trees, and I was most agreeably sur- 

 prised, for in every respect they surpassed my expectations. I 

 found a plantation of large bushes averaging six feet high, and six 

 feet through, in perfect health, abundantly laden uith fine fruit, 

 which was being gathered for market, and, I was told, realized 

 remunerative prices. I expected to find some peculiarly favourable 

 circumstances, such as the protection of an old scarp of chalk on 

 the side of an old quarry, or some other of those accidental aids to 

 particular spots that here and there serve to create special climates. 

 I found nothing of the sort. The trees were in an open field, fully 

 exposed to all the winds of heaven, and I was assured that Strood, 

 in Kent, enjoys no immunity from the severities of winter and 

 spring, which in other districts render walls and houses necessary to 

 the cultivator of the peach. The soil is a good sandy loam, resting 

 on chalk, a dry soil, no doubt, but a deep sound soil, on which wheat 

 or cabbage would grow with vigour. 



It may be asked how it came about that Mr. Ill man should 

 venture to make such a plantation of peaches, nectarines, and 

 apricots ? The answer is, that in reality he did not venture. He 

 did as other nurserymen do. "When the season was over, and he 

 had a surplus stock of potted trees, he, to save the trouble incident 

 to the keeping of such trees in pots all the summer, turned them 

 out, with the intention of potting them again in the following 

 autumn to be ready for sale for orchard-houses. But the trees 

 grew; they were left where they were another season, and they 

 produced a lot of fruit. Thus encouraged, he planted out a few 

 more, and thus it became a system at Strood to grow these fruits in 

 this way. 



Whether the climate of the country has changed or not I have 

 no very decided opinion, I am for the present reluctant to believe 

 that this climate has changed in any material respect during a 

 thousand years past, but if it has I must suppose it to have been for 

 the better. The fact is, I am not acquainted with sufficient evidence 

 either way to speak with any decision on the subject. But I know, 

 everybody knows, that this is not the first plantation of peaches and 

 apricots ever made with profit to its owner. The fact is, standard 

 peaches and apricots were at one time common ; they are now 

 scarce. Ten years ago I saw some huge standard apricot trees that 

 bore fruit abundantly in a garden at Leatherhead, in Surre5^ Messrs. 

 Lee, of Hammersmith nurseries, exhibited the first fruits of their 

 "Royal Vineyard" peach at the great fruit show at Edinburgh, in 

 1865, accompanied with a statement that the oiiginal tree was a 

 standard that had never been protected. The first tree of the 

 Moor Park Apricot was a standard at Moor Park. A crowd of 

 examples might be collected in evidence of the former existence of 

 many such trees. Their present scarcity is, no doubt, owing to the 

 cheapness of glass of late years, and its general adoption in the 

 culture of choice fruits, because of the certainty of production 



