AprU 2C, 1877. ) 



JOUBXAL OF HORTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GABDENEK. 



303 



KITCHEN APPLES SUITABLE FOK A COOL 

 CLIMATE. 



^ ^£S jP HE interest of many of your coiTcspondents' 

 Tii'^IE^ articles on fi'uit-culture would be much en- 

 hanced if they would give the name of the 

 market town nearest to their place of abode. 

 That interesting article on Apple culture, 

 pubUshed in No. 835 of our Journal, loses 

 much of its value because the wiiter has not 

 given sufficiently precise information respect- 

 ing his whereabouts. "Hive," he says, "in 

 a sonthera county.'' Who can possibly guess 

 which of all the southern counties? "Soil deep sandy 

 loam." But what kind of subsoil ? — one provocative of 

 canker or one in which the roots would delight to strike 

 deep ? 



Infoiination on several points is especially needed to 

 promote the more successful culture of the Apple — the 

 names of the Apples that succeed best in a given locahty, 

 whether adapted for cooking purposes or dessert ; the 

 kind of stock that seems to suits them ; the length of 

 time that intervenes between the year they are planted 

 and then- coming into bearing ; the method of training 

 most suitable to theu- style of growth ; the time of year 

 in which each variety becomes ready for use, and how 

 long it will remain sound in the fruit-room ; the names 

 also of those varieties of Apples that have been tried and 

 have failed to give satisfaction in that locality. We do not 

 wish to hear only of successfal culture ; failures convey 

 nseful warnings. 



" W. G." seems to have been unusually unfortunate in 

 the persons he has dealt with. I have received a bundle 

 of fruit trees evei-y year for the last twenty-five years 

 from the Sawbridgeworth nurseries, and only rarely in- 

 deed have any mistakes been made. 



Whenever garden space is at all limited I think it is not 

 desirable to plant many varieties of kitchen Apples. They 

 remain for so long a time sound in the fruit-room that 

 five or six kinds only are required to keep up a sufficient 

 supply from the end of August to the beginning of July. 



We have been frequently recommended in the pages 

 of our Journal not to buy a large collection of different 

 varieties of Bosos — that duplicates of the best sorts would 

 give more satisfaction. This advice is more especially 

 true with regard to the purchase of Apples. 



Skipton in West Yorkshire is my nearest post town. 

 Climate not adapted for the cultivation of Wheat. The 

 earliest Potatoes and Peas arc not ready for use until the 

 last week in June ; Strawberries ripe in the second week 

 in July. SoU, light black earth mingled with limestone 

 gravel, about 18 inches in depth ; subsoil, limestone gravel. 

 The roots of almost all fruit trees are disposed to canker 

 when they penetrate this subsoil. 



Lord Suffield is the best early Apple. It is ready for 

 use about the end of August and remains sound about two 

 months. It entirely supersedes all the Codlins. Very 

 large handsome fruit, melting, juicy, with a most agree- 

 able flavour. The tree is hardy, and forms a most regular 



Ko. 839.-VOL. XXXTT., NEVf Seeies. 



pyi-amid on the Crab stock, on which it begins bearing 

 fruit in three or four years from the graft. It also forms 

 a regular-shaped healthy spreading bush on the Paradise 

 stock, on which it bears even more abundantly than on 

 the Crab and yields finer fruit. 



This Apple is succeeded by Tower of Glammis. It is 

 ripe about the end of October, and will keep till the end 

 of January. Fruit large, juicy, with a perfumed flavour 

 closely resembling that of Lord Suffield. It grows freely 

 on the Paradise and forms a somewhat awkward-looking 

 but prohfic bush, which will begin to bear fruit the second 

 year after it is planted. 



Dumelow's Seedling is ready for use in January, and 

 will remain sound and perfectly good and juicy till July. 

 A few years ago the editor of the " Florist and Pomo- 

 logist " held an election of different kinds of fi'uits. This 

 Apple was placed first on the poll of kitchen Apples, so 

 it is the premier baking Apple of England. It grows 

 freely on the Paradise, and forms a beautiful, regular, 

 prolific pyramid, which usually begins bearing fruit the 

 second year after it is received from the nursery. I have 

 thirteen trees of this variety; and it would have been 

 greatly to the advantage of my fruit- room if I had planted 

 more trees of Dumelow's Seedling instead of indulging 

 my curiosity in the purchase of untried sorts. I am 

 unable to state how far it succeeds on the Crab stock, 

 as I am perfectly satisfied with its performance on the 

 Paradise. It will, however, give finer fruit if it be trained 

 upright against an east or west wall. 



Although these three kinds will do all that can be 

 required of Apples throughout the entire season, stUI 

 there are three other sorts of such high excellence that 

 they should not be omitted. Cox's Pomona on the Para- 

 dise forms a beautiful, healthy, compact Imsh which never 

 fails to bear year by year. It is one of the best and most 

 proHfio of Apples. Ready in October, but does not re- 

 main sound veiy long. 



Winter Hawthornden is naturally of so dwarf a growth 

 that it requh-es all the vigour the Crab stock can give it. 

 Here it grows nest to Cos's Pomona, and forms a round 

 compact bush about the same size as its neighbour. It 

 comes into bearing when four or five years old from the 

 gi-aft, and if not overcropped will give some very fine 

 large fruit. Here it has reached 17 ozs. I first saw this 

 Apple growing in a garden near Eipon when every fruit 

 seemed to be about that size. It bears freely, and is in use 

 from November to the end of December. On the Para- 

 disc stock this Apple and Warner's King and Stirling 

 Castle succeed well as two-branched lateral cordons trained 

 along a wire about a foot from the surface as an edging 

 to the border of a kitchen garden. 



Cellini on the Paradise is the most beautiful-looking 

 Apple, and the most abundant bearer of all that I have 

 mentioned. Here it is trained upright against a wall, 

 and in the autumn its red-streaked fruit are very orna- 

 mental. Its upright style of growth is better adapted 

 for the pyramid shape than that of the bush. It will 

 begin bearing as soon as it has grown a scrap of wood 

 to bear from, and is in use until Christmas. 



No. liai.— Vol. LVII., Old Sebieb. 



