124 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



APPLES FOR THE MILLION. 



jlHE high prices of first-class market fruits at the present time appear to 

 he scarcely consistent with the fact that nearly all kinds of fruits were 

 produced in unusual plenty in the past season. The Gardener's Maga- 

 zine explains the parodox by the allegation that in middle-class gardens, 

 fruits and vegetables obtain less attention than formerly, in consequence 

 of the misdirection of the energies of gardeners in favour of vegetable-tiusel in 

 the shape of weedy stove plants, and the meretricious magnificence of the latest 

 styles of bedding. Consistently with this view of the case, our contemporary sup- 

 plies from the pen of Mr. John Scott, of the Merriott Nurseries, Crewkerne, 

 Somerset, a peculiarly useful article on the apple-treo. It appears tliat Mr. Scott 

 has been called on to advise a clergyman who desires to provide his poorer 

 parishioners with the best kind cf apple trees and other useful tilings for their 

 gardens, and gives publicity to his counsels in the hope that they may prove ex- 

 tensively useful. He says the apple will thrive in a greater variety of soils than 

 any other fruit tree, and as it flowers late, it often escapes injury from spring frosts 

 that cripple all other kinds of hardy fruits. But the conditions that suit the apple 

 best are a deep moist loam and a warm moist climate — hence the productiveness of 

 the orchards of the west of England. In respect to the form of the tree, Mr. Scott 

 votes for the old-fashioned standard, with its noble growth and abundant produc- 

 tion, as the most profitable tree of any kind that can be planted. But where there 

 is not room for standard apple trees, dwarf bushes grafted on the true Paradise 

 stock are much to be desired in the interests of the household, for though small 

 trees cannot produce the bushels that may be gathered from great old orchard trees, 

 the bushes, if well made in the nursery, become fruitful soon after planting, and 

 while they give good crops commensurate with their size, the many varieties that 

 may be grown on a small plot of ground render them more useful than a great tree 

 giving a glut of one kind, the season of which perhaps may be restricted. In 

 selecting the best sorts, preference should be given, we are told, to handsome fruit 

 of good quality and long keeping. It is for the amateur pomologist to grow the 

 finer dessert kinds, which are for the most part tender in constitution, and of little 

 use in the kitchen — the apples that are most in demand everywhere being such as 

 look well, cook well, and keep well, and, given these qualities, the more fruitful the 

 trees are the better. Mr. Scott selects the Cellini as the best of all apples, and th« sort 

 which should be planted whore there is room for only one tree. It is of good size and 

 pleasing colour, deep yellow streaked with red, and eqtially useful fur cooking or the 

 dessert. It is in season from September to Christmas. The best six selected from 120O 

 sorts grown inthe Merriott Nurseries are Stirling Castle, Keswick Codlin, Hawthorti' 

 den, Forge, Alfriston or Shepherd' s Fame, and the Dutch Mignonne. These we are ad- 

 vised to rely upon for an abundance of the finest apples from August to May, and all 

 of them are culinary fruit save the last, which is equally good for cooking or the 

 dessert. If these seven sorts are not enough we are offered twenty-four in addition, 

 the names of which are Devonshire Quarrenden, Red Astrachan, Lord SuffielA, 

 Fott'sSeedling, Jolly Beggar, London JPippin, Nelson Codlin, Bymer, Cox's Orange, 

 Beauty of Kent, Hoary Morning, Mere de Menage, Cockpit, Blenheim Pippin, 

 Barcelona, Pearmain, Brabant Bellejleur, Court Pendu Plat, Eoyal Russet, 

 Fearn's Pippin, Aromatic Russet, Braddiclis Nonpareil, Winter Pearmain 

 Costard. The final advice as to pruning is very brief and simple. Mr. Scott says 

 the trees sliould not be pruned or pinched at all, for pruning and pinching defer 

 the date of fruit production and seriously diminish the health and vigour of the tree. 

 Every tree tends naturally to reproduce its kind, and the surest way to insure a 

 crop is to interfere with nature as little as possible. 



The West of England Hose Show will be held on Tuesday, June 29, in the 

 Shire Hall, Hereford. 



An International Hokticultuxal Exhibition will be held at Amsterdam 

 in the spring of 1876, and as it has the support of all the leading horticulturists 

 and public men in the NethprlanHs, it will probably be a grand aflfair. 



