AN ENGLISH EEUIT FAEM 



BY the; editor. 



HAVING an introduction from Mr. 

 A. E. Kimmins, of Winona, to his 

 uncle, Mr. A. J. Thomas, of Bar- 

 gainhill, near Sittingbourne, in East Kent, 

 \ve went down by a Thames steamer to 

 Gravesend, and from Sittingbourne by car- 

 riage, four miles, to his lovely country home. 

 The surroundings are picturesque, the land 

 being somewhat hilly and well clothed with 

 orchards and hop yards. On every side, as 

 we approached, were large plantations of 

 cherry, plum, dwarf apple and pear trees, 

 reminding one of the fruit districts of On- 

 tario, except that with us such plantations 

 are young, while in England they are com- 

 paratively very old. 



" I have an orchard of black cherry trees," 

 said Mr. Thomas, " which must be nearly 

 two hundred years old, for they were old 

 trees in my grandfather's time." 



To us it seems doubtful if any Canadian 

 cherry orchard will ever endure to such an 

 age. We have many cherry trees that have 

 reached the age of fifty years, but they are 

 already beginning to fail. 



The lawn and hedges about Mr. Thomas' 

 house were all in perfect trim, and such beds 

 of immense- pansies as we have never seen 

 in Ontario were placed about in bold relief. 

 What a delightful retreat from the great city 

 of London ! " I would not live amid the 

 smoke and dust of that city for anything you 

 could give me, so long as I have this coun- 

 try home," said Miss Thomas, and we 

 heartily re-echoed the sentiment, applied 

 even to our own country home in Ontario. 



" What variety of cherries do you culti- 

 vate?" we enquired. 



" Chiefly the Bigarreaus." said Mr. 

 Thomas, " and of these the chief are the 



Amber, the Napoleon and the Yellow Span- 

 ish." 



"' Do you not cultivate the Kentish varie- 

 ties of sour cherries?" 



" Not of late years," said he. " We find 

 more money in growing such kinds as Gov- 

 ernor Wood, the Bigarreaus, and the Black 

 Ox Hearts." 



Walking through his great cherry or- 

 chards we were struck with the enormous 

 size of the trees, and could easily credit them 

 with yielding an enormous crop in favorable 

 seasons. 



" Do you cultivate your cherry orchard ?" 



" No," said he, " not after the trees reach 

 bearing age. Then we seed down the 

 ground to a sheep pasture. 



" W^hat are your prospects for a fruit crop 

 this season ?" we asked, seeing that the trees 

 in most cases appeared to show very little 

 fruit. 



" The blackest we ever knew," said he. 

 " The severe spring frosts, and the back- 

 ward weather which has prevailed since, 

 have combined to destroy nearly our whole 

 fruit crop this season, so that, unless prices 

 rule very high, it will not even pay for the 

 harvesting. Nearly all fruits are destroyed 

 alike by the frost, pears, plums and apples, 

 as well as cherries. In consequence this 

 ought to be a most favorable season for you 

 Canadians to ship your fruit in to this coun- 

 try." 



" How many acres of orchard have you ?" 



" About one hundred and fifty ; mostly de- 

 voted to cherries, pears and apples. The 

 apples are grown for the most part on the 

 English paradise stock, and are planted 9 x 

 12 feet apart." 



The top grafting done by Mr. Thomas is 



