122 



IRISH GARDENING 



AUGUST 



Fruit Crop, 19 lo. 



WK.-uv alV.iiil tlio prospiH-ts of Irish fruit j,MO\vi-rs 

 ;iro not vi'ry proinisinjc lliis yoar. Tlie very 

 luMvv irop of apples last year on both young- 

 and old trees, many of which were not thinned, told 

 heavily on the quantity of blossom borne this year. Old 

 trees, especially in ifrass orchards, certainly did not 

 flower so freely as last year. This cannot, however, be 

 said of voung-, vig-orous trees, as they formed in most 

 cases a perfect mass of flowers. 



The severe weather of last October iiiterrentl in 

 many cases with the proper ripenintj of the wood, with 

 the result that much injury was done by the early frosts. 

 Many of the fruit buds. too. not being properly ripened 

 up. suffered very much, and produced quantities of \ ery 

 weak flowers which failed to set. 



Three weeks oi g-ood weather at the end of March 

 and in earlv April started the buds, and then we had 

 very cold nights with much rain and some hail. This, 

 retarding the growth, g^ave insects considerable head- 

 way in their attacks on flower and young- leaf. The 

 usual late spring frosts, not being severe this year, did 

 very little damage to the fruit blossom, and gave ex- 

 pectation of a much better set of large fruit than sub- 

 sequently appeared. The flowering period was late 

 last year, but this year it was at least a week, and in 

 some cases a fortnight, later than usual. The con- 

 tinual very cold rain, hail, and wind at the flowering 

 period prevented many of the flowers setting: fruit, while 

 the lengthened flowering period also enabled various 

 insects, such as the apple-sucker and the caterpillar of 

 the winter moth, to do great damage to the flower 

 trusses throughout the prolonged critical time of fer- 

 tilisation. 



The crop of large fruit in general is below the aver- 

 age, and nothing like as good as last year. The fruits, 

 however, appear as if they will be a good sample, 

 are swelling up rapidly, and there should, at all events, 

 be some good exhibition fruit, as few trees are 

 bearing a very heavy crop. As a general rule 

 young trees are bearing better than old ones, and 

 bush fruit, on the whole, have apparently done very 

 well. 



Apples are in general either an average or below 

 average crop. There are few cases of a good crop, and 

 this is chiefly on trees in orchards which had a light 

 crop last year. Trees which were allowed to over-crop 

 themselves last year are bearing very little, and in 

 many instances no fruit at all. Bramleys are bearing 

 an average crop in the North, both young and old 

 trees. Lane's, Derby, Grenadier, White Transparent, 

 Early Victoria, and Bismarck are also bearing fairly well. 

 The dessert varieties will, however, be a light crop in 

 general. 



Pears are below the average in general, and, 

 except on walls, there will be a light crop. It is nothing 

 like so good as last year, and in very few gardens 

 is there a good crop. Pears are not much grown 

 commercially. They are planted chiefly in walled-in 

 gardens for home use. 



Plims are poor in general. They must have suffered 

 from the cold, wet weather, as there was a good show 



of flowers, and they were not so much affected with 

 insects ;is in past \ears. N'oung trees of \'ictoria and 

 River's Karlv Prolific from four to ten years planted 

 .ippear to be bearing heavy crops. There is a fair crop 

 on wall-trained trees. 



Chkkuiks were an irregular crop this year. In most 

 gardens, where sheltered, they were well up to the 

 average, but where grown for commercial purposi-s in 

 Derry and Wicklow, and at the "Strawberry Beds" 

 districts near Dublin, the crop has been below the 

 average. In Dublin the black fly played great havoc 

 with this crop 



GOOSEBERRIKS are nothing liki- the crop they were 

 last year, few of the market growers having a good 

 crop. Whinham's Industry seems to be bearing the best 

 thisvear, and ^oo<.\ prices are at present being obtained 

 for them, ripe. Owing to the prolonged hard winter, 

 birds played havoc with the buds, and almost stripped 

 some of the bushes, This was most noticeable in 

 Wexford, Waterford, Kilkenny and Cork counties. It 

 was not so bad in Meath and the North, A good 

 many bushes have had to be grubbed up and burned 

 owing to outbreaks of American gooseberry mildew. 



Cl RRANTS in general are a good crop, and the fruit 

 is of good quality. Prices have had a severe drop 

 during the last few days here. This ought not to be, 

 however, as the English crop is a small one. They 

 appear to have withstood the cold weather well, and 

 suff"ered very little from the attacks of green fly. A 

 good many bushes have been destroyed because of the 

 mite. Much more pruning is being done to black 

 currant bushes than formerly, with the result that more 

 young wood is formed and better fruit borne. 



Raspberries in both private gardens and commercial 

 plantations are a good crop, and the fruit is of good 

 quality. The prices obtained for the sale of the fruit, 

 however, are not as good as they might be. A few of 

 the plantations suffered, but in general the canes 

 came through the winter without suffering very much. 

 A comparatively new variety, Bath's Perfection, which 

 is a strong grower, appears to be doing well on heavy 

 soils and is well worth a trial where some other varieties 

 are not doing well. 



Strawberries are a good crop, and almost every- 

 where are better than last year. In the North, especially, 

 man}' of the earliest and best fruit suffered from the 

 very wet weather just as they were ripening, and it was 

 a blessing to the strawberry growers here that the 

 weather took up at the time it did, as a few more wet 

 days would have spread mildew over the whole planta- 

 tions. The berries were later in ripening this season, 

 and many of the best fruits came in just at the same 

 time as the imported surplus from England, thus 

 causing a glut in the market. Later on good Irish 

 strawberries were selling very well, and it is a query if 

 good lates are not now more profitable than early or 

 mid-season berries to cultivate. 



Fungi. — The most troublesome fungi are apple 

 canker, scab and American gooseberry mildew. 

 Apple scab is spreading very much, and doing more 

 damage perhaps to the apple crop than any other pest. 

 No definite remedy has as yet been discovered which 

 will eradicate it without serious injury to the trees. 

 Experiments are at present in progress in this country 



