AprU 8, 1869. 1 



JOURNAL OP HORTIOOLTUBE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEB. 



23S 



PLANTING A FRUIT GARDEN. 



H.VVE not seen the subject of a proper suc- 

 cession of fruit trees discussed in your columns. 

 I planted the greater part of the trees in my 

 own garden eight or ten years ago, and I find 

 now that I should liave been greatly bene- 

 tited by some judicious advice on this sub- 

 ject : and although I have been for some 

 ry years endeavouring to correct my eiTors by 



removing or regrafting superfluous trees, 

 and introducing more desirable kinds, yet I 

 must confess that my garden is still most imperfect, and 

 unequal in the supply that it affords. When I enter other 

 gardens, where the matter is scarcely studied at all, I find 

 it commonly the case, that there is an cmhurra.'i de richesses 

 at certain times of the year, ill-balanced by an absolute 

 dearth at others, an abundance of fruit comparatively 

 worthless, whUe the worthier kinds are not even known by 

 name. Being therefore still imperfectly acquainted with 

 the best kinds of fruit, and asking information of others, I 

 will, with your permission, describe the best way, to my 

 knowledge, of stocking a moderate-sized garden, feeling 

 quite sure that others will widely difler from me, and that 

 if some of them wUl take the trouble to give their views on 

 the subject, we may arrive at some approximation to the 

 truth. 



But this is a matter where everything will depend on the 

 size of the garden. Let us take, then, a garden of such 

 dimensions as to be manageable by an active man, with 

 the help of a boy, or the assistance at busy times of an 

 extra man for a day's digging. Let it be a walled garden, 

 and have an orchard house. It may or may not have a 

 heated vinery or ground vineries ; for Grapes will not 

 enter into the present discussion. 



First, then, for the walls. On these I would grow hardly 

 any Plums, only one Green Gage (Transparent Gage is 

 said to be the best), for high flavour, and one Goes Golden 

 Drop for its lateness ; but it needs a warm corner to 

 ripen well. There are, I am well aw.are, many excellent 

 Plums, but they are not so good as Peaches, and I should, 

 therefore, prefer to have them elsewhere : where, I will 

 show presently. If, however, there happen to be a fancy 

 for Plums and a wish to develop the higher flavour which 

 a wall will undoubtedly impart to them, then I would plant 

 a few trees as diagonal cordons against the wall, by them- 

 selves, at 18 inches apart, selecting choice kinds, say, in 

 the order of ripening. Early Favom-ite, De Montfort, 

 McLauglilin's Gage, beautiful and fragrant, Kirke's, Reine 

 Claude de Bavay, Fulton, and Imperatrice. 



Of the remaining wall space I would devote three parts 

 to Peaches and Nectarines and one part to Pears. Pears 

 grown on walls, south of the Trent, are not generally 

 superior to those grown on standards, except in size. I do 

 not know, therefore, that I should admit any to my pre- 

 cious wall space but that I believe there are certain kinds 

 which may be improved by this treatment Everyone 

 knows how rare it is to meet with a good Pear after 

 January ; but I have sometimes found these late kinds, 



No. 419.-V0I.. XVI., New Series. 



commonly so hard and flavourless, acquiring on a wall 

 a flavour which they cannot obtain elsewhere. Beurri 

 Sterckmaus, for instance, has been this winter delicious 

 and juicy from a wall. I should like to know whether 

 the experience of others confirms this ; and I will at the 

 same time ask those who have proved them, to name what 

 they consider the best spring I'ears. The only good ones 

 I know are Easter Beurre, which ripened tliis year at 

 Christmas ; Bergamotte Esperen with a Beurr.; texture, 

 but a weak tree on a light soil ; and Beurre de Ranee, 

 which is not at all Beurrt, but sweet and juicy, and ripe 

 now, on the 2oth of March. 



These late Pears, if I have any, are the only ones I 

 would admit to my wall. They must be small trees, and 

 therefore on the Quince. In fact, a Pear on a Pear stock, 

 with huge branches, as one sometimes sees them, occupy- 

 ing the space of three Peach trees, for many years bearing 

 nothing, and then no fruit except at the extremities, ought 

 never to be seen against a wall, nor indeed inside a walled 

 garden. On the Quince they come into beariug at once, 

 are very fruitful, and may easily be confined within a 

 limited space. They sliould not occupy more than 4 feet 

 of wall, which space the trees sold by nurserymen as 

 pyramids, after one side has been cut off, may be easily 

 trained to cover. 



The Peach trees on the wall, alternating with these 

 Pear trees, I will suppose to occupy 1;^ feet to every 4 feet 

 allotted to a Pear, and to be fan-trained, let us hope with 

 their lower branches well developed in their youth, and if 

 possible bent upwards in the French fashion after they 

 have reached their full horizontal extent, so as to nm 

 some way up the wall, and maintain their vigour ; and on 

 the wall, v?ith the exception perhaps of one early Peach, I 

 would have none but the noble midseason Peaches, reserv- 

 ing the later kinds for the dry atmosphere of the orchard 

 house — such kinds as Bellegarde or Galande. and Royal 

 George, varied with the paler Noblesse, and for Nectarines 

 Violette Hative and Elruge, the latter so fruitful and so 

 pruneable. 



And now for the orchard house, which by the way 

 should be a span-roof, for in the south of England it is a 

 waste of good wall space to have an orchard house leaning 

 against a wall. It, like the walls, should be kept for the 

 most valuable trees — grow nothing in it which wUl do 

 fairly outside. Peaches and Nectarines should be its main 

 crop, followed, perhaps, by one or two of those late Plums 

 which will ripen admirably here, and hang uninjured till 

 they shrivel into ccmcentrated sweetness ; such are Impe- 

 ratrice, Coe's G(jldenDrop, Fellenberg, and Norbert. But 

 while tlie main crop of the orchard house is of Peaches, 

 these Peaches should be exceptional ones, exceptional 

 either for their earliness, for tliey wUl ripen here a little 

 earlier than on a wall, or for their lateness, for they wiU 

 be safer here than on a wall, or for their singularity, for 

 there are kinds of Avhich one is glad to possess a specimen 

 of moderate size, although one cannot aftbrd space for a 

 large tree. 



Let us suppose the house to hold thirty Peach trees, 

 then let five be of the earlier kinds, intended to be eaten 



No. 1071.— Vol. Sil., Old Series. 



