THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 329 



choicest character ttat I am quite proud of it. I cannot say how 

 many baskets of apples and pears that it contains, but I have no 

 hesitation in saying that the stores are sufficient to maintain a 

 regular supply for cooking and eating until the spring, as a proper 

 proportion of late sorts were planted in the formation of the orchard 

 — if my little quarter of fruit-trees is deserving of that designation. 



My object in alluding to my fruit-room is not to boast of my 

 skill in the cultivation of hardy fruits, for of horticultural skill I am 

 bound to confess I have very little ; but rather to show that 

 amateurs may, without a very large expenditure of either money or 

 labour, provide themselves with a supply of hardy fruits of first-class 

 quality, and extending over about eigbt months of every twelve. I 

 am also desirous of acknowledging the immense amount of assistance 

 I have received from the pages of the Flokal World in the forma- 

 tion and management of my plantation of fruit-trees. To the issue 

 for October, 1868, Mr. Gordon contributed an article entitled " The 

 Villa Fruit Garden," which set me thinking, and in the end I deter- 

 mined to form a fruit garden in the manner so ably explained by the 

 writer. My grounds are not extensive, but I managed to spare a 

 quarter of an acre from a little paddock adjoining the kitchen 

 garden. This I had trenched over, and as the soil is of fairly good 

 quality, neither too heavy nor too light, no manure nor fresh soil 

 were applied. This plot of ground, which is rather more than a 

 hundred feet in depth and in width, is large enough to afi'ord accom- 

 modation for two hundred and twenty-five trees at seven feet apart 

 each way, or a foot more than was advised by Mr. Gordon. They 

 were all obtained on dwarfing stocks, and trained in the form of 

 pyramids or compact bushes, according to their habit of growth, 

 and nothing could be more satisfactory than the growth of these 

 trees. All have grown freely, and such as have shown signs of 

 excessive luxuriance — as, for example, in the production of stout 

 shoots — have been carefully lifted in November, and replanted again. 

 But those making a fair growth and bearing good crops have been 

 undisturbed ; for so long as the growth is not so luxuriant as to 

 render the production of fruit-buds out of the question, no useful 

 purpose would, in my opinion, be served by disturbing the roots. 



The pruning I have done myself, and it has afibrded me much 

 interesting amusement. It is so simple that I have had no trouble, 

 and I do not see how an amateur can go wrong, provided he bestows 

 some thought upon his work. All that I do in the summer is to 

 shorten the shoots back to within about six inches of the base. This 

 is done, as a rule, about the first week in August, but in late seasons, 

 when, owing to the coldness of the weather, the wood does not 

 become firm [so early as usual, the shortening back is deferred for a 

 week or a fortnight, because if it is done whilst the trees are still 

 growing rapidly the shoots will break again, and this is not desir- 

 able. On the other hand, if delayed until late in the season, the 

 trees will not possess sufiicient vigour for the formation of flower- 

 buds. The winter pruning consists in removing a few shoots where 

 they are overcrowded, and in shortening a few of the longest, if 

 necessary, for the preservation of the contour of the tree, as I am 



JSoyembet, 



