IRISH GARDENING 



179 



each in the row and two lines 10 feet apart 

 between each row 



Suitable varieties for the bush trees are 

 numerous; and it should be very easy to make 

 a selection to suit the soil and also the markets 

 catered for. 



In dessert varieties, Beauty of Bath, Devon- 

 shire Quarrendon, Lady Sudeley, Langley Pippin, 

 James Grieve, Worcester Pearmain, Cox's 

 Orange Pippin, and King of the Pippins, all lend 

 themselves very readily to the bush form of 

 tree, and are amenable to the necessary restric- 

 tive treatment on the Paradise stock. 



In cooking apples, Early Victoria, Early 

 River's, Stirling Castle, Pott's Seedling, 

 Bismarck, Lane's Prince Albert, Byford Wonder, 

 and King Edward VII. can all be grown in this 

 manner without getting out of hand, but it is 

 probable that if the stronger growers recom- 

 mended above for the Standard trees are planted 

 as bushes on the Paradise on any good land 

 that they will grow too rampantly and be 

 inclined to get out of hand unless severely root- 

 pruned pretty constantly. 



As previously pointed out above, when some 

 or most of these are getting torn out at anything 

 between fifteen and twenty years from the time 

 of planting, the Standards should be fine trees, 

 with heads anything like 12 to 15 feet through 

 and capable of bearing six to eight bushels of 

 apples apiece. 



Of course during the first few years, while 

 the bush trees are groAving up, the land between 

 can be croj^ped in any way most suitable and 

 convenient to the cultivator, either by planting 

 currants and gooseberries pretty thickly for a 

 catch crop for a few years, or strawberries 

 can be grown, or indeed any other crop which 

 does not unduly exhaust the land. 



Space will not permit of any detailed instruc- 

 tions as to planting, pruning, spraying, and all 

 the other routine work of a fruit farm, and a few 

 general observations must suffice. 



In the first place, good healthy trees only 

 should be bought from a reliable nurseryman 

 who has a reputation to sustain and to whom 

 it would be ruinous to send out the filthy 

 rubbish which is frequently sold by horticultural 

 cheapjacks. A clean start is half the battle, 

 and if the trees are at first free from mealy 

 aphis, apple sucker, apple scab, &c, it will be 

 far easier to keep them so than if one starts 

 handicapped by the presence of many of these 

 pests. 



Another point is to keep the trees growing 

 well by judicious pruning, good cultivation of 

 the soil and a sufficiency of well-balanced 

 manure suitable for the needs of the trees. 



There is no doubt that a weak tree is far more 

 susceptible to all sorts of diseases than a thrifty 



one, hence the above caution to keep all the 

 trees growing well. 



At the same time care must be taken not to 

 over mamire with nitrogenous substar ces, other- 

 wise a rank, soft, sappy growth will 1 e produced 

 which falls an easy prey to canker and many 

 other fungoid diseases. 



If disease of any sort should get a hold in the 

 plantation, either from the presence of neigh- 

 bouring neglected orchards or by other 

 extraneoixs agency, vigorous measures should 

 at once be taken to stamp it out. It is far 

 easier and cheaper in the long run to go for any 

 attack as energetically as possible, rather than 

 to procrastinate and see what will happen if the 

 disease be neglected. 



Lime sulphur and Bordeaux mixture for 

 fungus diseases, arsenate of lead for all leaf- 

 eating caterpillars, and contact sprays like soft 

 soap and quassia, or proprietary articles like 

 Cooper's V 1 , MDougall's No. 2, White's Abol 

 Fruit Wash, for aphis, sucker, red spider, and all 

 other sucking insects ; these provide a range of 

 spray fluids sufficient to cope for almost any 

 emergency the grower is likely to meet, and if 

 thoroughly and energetically applied at the first 

 sign of any attack will be pretty certain to effect 

 a cure. 



Needless to say, a plantation planted on these 

 lines should never be allowed to grass over, but 

 be diligently cultivated whether bearing any 

 catch crop or not. 



Both in America and Australia the growers 

 are far ahead of us in this country in orchard 

 cultivating tools and rigs, making it possible to 

 cultivate with a horse to within a couple of feet 

 of the stem of the trees, even comparatively low 

 bush trees, without doing damages to the boughs 

 or badly barking the stems, as would be the case 

 with such ploughs and cultivators and harness 

 which we are accustomed to use here. 



Careful choice of a suitable field, from the 

 standpoint of situation and soil ; careful selec- 

 tion of the trees, and the arrangement of 

 the same, so that cross-pollination may take 

 place with known self-sterile varieties, and 

 very great carefulness in all the manifold details 

 of cultivation, &c, will, I am convinced, still 

 assure a good return from capital invested in. 

 apple growing in this old land of ours, though 

 perhaps for a time it may have seemed that the 

 game was played out, and that the future lay 

 with the oversea growers in America and the 

 Antipodes. 



The competition which we have had to meet 

 will in the end prove to have been of value to 

 us in causing us to aim at a higher standard of 

 growing, packing and marketing, and not 

 allowing us to rest satisfied until it is 

 attained. 



