440 THE GARDENER. [Oct. 



most acceptable at table either as kitchen or dessert fruit, will be found 

 not to succeed under the rough-and-ready planting and management 

 which the coarser and strong-constitutioned cider-Apples are indifferent 

 to ; but we must not forget that many of our best Apples are equally 

 robust, for instance, the Old Nonpareil, Hawthornden, or Ribston 

 Pippin ; yet the Kerry Pippin, Lady Margaret, and Cox's Orange, 

 scarcely less fine in quality, will grow to the magnitude of forest-trees 

 in company with the cider-Apples. It is, therefore, necessary in 

 forming new plantations of trees that the best conditions be provided 

 for them if a selection of sorts be aimed at. 



No fruit-tree will thrive long in an open gravel, sand, or thin chalky 

 soil without very heavy top-dressing, and not even then. Speaking 

 generally, Pears do best on clay soils or soils of a stiff texture ; Plums 

 and stone-fruits are best on the chalk ; while Apples do best on the 

 lighter sandy soils of good depth, and on peaty soils. It must not be 

 supposed that we hold that these various trees will grow in these soils 

 and in no other ; we only mean that those general remarks will give 

 the clue to the planting and choice of soils for the various orchard 

 fruits, where the natural soil is unsuitable. 



We have just seen an excellent result following the removal of chalky 

 flinty soil, and the substitution of a clayey soil, on a pretty extensive 

 scale in a first-class garden in Wiltshire, the object being the cultiva- 

 tion of the finer Pears. It was quite clear that, when the best results 

 are aimed at, in the case of the Pear it is as essential to have a made 

 border for that fruit as it is for the Vine. Plums, Peaches, and Pigs 

 were doing grandly in the soil which was poison to the Pear. 



No one thinks nowadays of planting without thorough drainage; 

 but we think there is often much unnecessary draining practised. 

 Much of our annual rainfall is carried away by drains, which would be 

 of immense value in summer if consumed in the soil, provided it does 

 not get water-logged from the configuration of the surface. It is water 

 from below which causes most mischief, or overflow water from a dis- 

 tance. In many instances the orchard or fruit-tree border would be 

 quite safe, and even benefited by the want of drains : and we can 

 point to some which would be much improved by being concreted 

 underneath, for the purpose of conserving the rainfall and preventing 

 the roots wandering down into a deleterious subsoil after moisture. A 

 very open gravel should be concreted when it happens to be the sub- 

 soil of a fruit-tree border, or puddled with clay. 



High planting — that is, spreading the roots on or near the surface, 

 and slightly mounding the soil round and over the roots — is a good 

 rule, but one which should not be by any means universally applied ; it 

 is often better to plant deep where a soil is shallow, or on very sloping 



