llsroli 29, 1877. 1 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



225 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



1IA.BCH 29— APEIL 4, 1877. 



Easter Sunday. 

 Easter Mondat. Bank Holiday. 

 Easter Tdesday. 



Royal Horticnltiiral Society — Fruit and Floral Com- 

 [ mittce at 11 a.m. 



Average 



Temperature near 



London. 



6 26 



6 28 



6 29 



6 31 



6 33 



6 34 



Clock 

 before 

 Snn. 



From observatioDS taken near London daring forty-three yoarsfthe average day temperatore of the week is 65.P; and its night temperatore 



NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE. 



^^UESTIONS were propounded on page 129, 

 vol. xsx., by "Amateur Oechakdist " -wliicL 

 have not met with that response which the 

 subject deserves. I hoped that observant 

 fruit-growers would have come forward and 

 given the results of their culture of hardy 

 fl^r fruits in various parts of the country and in 



^ -^ all classes of soils. 



I have noticed iu the instructions given 

 by many who have written on the subject 

 that there has been too hard a line fixed. Some say, 

 Grow all your Apples on the Paratlise stock ; plant 6 feet 

 apart ; summer-prune, and then gather your crops. I 

 commenced according to instractions, purchasing the best 

 sorts at the large nurseries, and after some years of 

 experience I found that there were many parts of my 

 orchard in which matters were going wrong, though I had 

 abundant success with the greater number of my trees. 

 My want of success was partly due to having given the 

 same treatment to many of the varieties, regardless of their 

 requirements ; but there were other causes of non-success 

 which I propose to detail, so that others may be cautioned 

 by my experience, confining my remarks to Apples. 



I may here state that I live in a southern county, and 

 that the soil of my garden is a deep sandy loam. Great 

 annoyance and vexation are often caused by nurserymen 

 sending out their trees not true to name. I have a large 

 proportion of my orchard occupied with sorts I do not 

 require, and never ordered. How this evil is to be avoided 

 by purchaeei's I do not know, as it is often years before 

 the mistake is discovered. I have twice tried to procure 

 Small's Admirable, and botli times have had sorts sent to 

 me which were not true to name. How does the error 

 creep in? 'Who is in fault ? In some cases I suspect that 

 the men trust to their knowledge of the appearance of 

 the trees and so dig them up without referring to the 

 labels. Perhaps an en-or once made in labelling may be 

 perpetuated by grafting from young trees without fruiting 

 the sort; bat from whatever cause this evil may arise it 

 is very important that nurserymen should direct their 

 attention to the subject. Perhaps I have been more 

 unfortunate than others, but as an instance I will mention 

 that in a collection of eighteen varieties purchased at a 

 large nursery five were sent to mc with names that did 

 not belong to them. 



There is a habit which some nurserymen have that 

 I wish they would discontinue — namely, sending sorts 

 which they have a stock of should they happen to be out 

 of those ordered ; to say the least, this is assuming that 

 the customer looks more to filling-up his orchard plot 

 th.an an-anging his varieties according to his taste. It is 

 very disappointing when, for instance, the customer orders 

 a variety ho particularly wishes to try and another is 

 substituted by the nurseryman with the remark that it 

 is better than thut ordered and comes in at the same 

 season. This occurred to me a few years ago ; perhaps 

 the variety was " better," but I did not waut it. 



No. 836.-VOL. XX.XU., New Series. 



Apropos of this subject I recollect turning out some 

 plants of a certain sort of Eose from my borders because 

 I had too many of them, and, having made room for 

 others, I carefully selected from Mr. Hinton's valuable 

 list what I required. On the arrival of the hamper from 

 the nursery I was much disappointed to find the old dis- 

 carded Bose that I had sent to keep company with the 

 Cabbages included in the parcel, the grower having sent 

 me ihe number ordered, but very few of the sorts re- 

 quired. I am quite aware that buyers are wrong in 

 delaying their orders till it is diiflcult to obtain the trees 

 they want, but I do not see how the matter can be set 

 right bj' sending sorts which were not ordered. 



I must protest against the manner in which pyramids 

 and bushes ai-e often tied up at some nurseries. As far 

 as my experience goes four out of five trees have arrived 

 with the chief lower branches or principal roots broken 

 by the tying material. I have tried to remedy this by 

 ordering only maiden trees, but broken bushes were some- 

 times sent instead. 



In regard to the stocks for Apples my experience 

 justifies my saying that the Broad-leaved and Nonsuch 

 Paradise stocks are very valuable to amateur orchardists. 

 They give an abundance of surface roots, they are readily 

 root-pruned, and they cause the varieties grafted on 

 them to produce short and stout branches. They have 

 many other g<ft>d qualities, not the least of which is 

 that an orchard consisting of pyramids on these stocks 

 is more likely to give an even growth throughout than 

 one on stocks grown from seeds — the plan adopted by 

 some growers. 



Part of my trees (pyramids and bushes) are on stocks 

 as last described. Some of the specimens do well enough 

 and root near the surface ; others arc small and weak, and 

 produce small fruit ; others, again, produce strong roots 

 which make rapid progress towards the centre of gravity, 

 and are very difficult to prune both in root and branch 

 so as to keep them on an average with the others ; in 

 fact among these I find so great a variety of growth that 

 they give a considerable amount of trouble. 



This brings me to the subject of the Crab stock. Not- 

 withstanding that my trees are growing in good loam I 

 find it very advantageous not only to grow some varieties 

 on strong Crab stocks, but to abundantly manure the 

 ground and in every way encourage strong growth. 

 Some Hawthorndens on Crabs were for some years here 

 particularly liable to canker and to produce crops of 

 small spotted fruit, but by dint of abundant supplies of 

 manure, pruning away all weak growth, and thinning the 

 crops, I have succeeded in converting sickly bushes into 

 strong and handsome specimens capable of producing 

 heavy crops of very fine fruit, and the trees are now quite 

 free from canker and making good annual growth. 1 

 believe the roots are well down into the loam by this 

 time, and that the weak growth and canker were the 

 results of removals and root-pruning, and consequent loss 

 of vigour. 



I have the French Codlin on the Crab stock; this I 

 manure abundantly, and the fruit grows two and three in 



No. 1187.— Vol. LVII., Old Series. 



