270 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



clipped, and is much handsomer if free-grown. The orchard fence 

 should not be cut in every year to a hard line, but Sloe, and May 

 and Sweet Brier, and wild Rose left to bloom and berry, the hedge 

 to be a shelter as well as a fence, and not trimmed oftener than every 

 ten years or so. Then it should be cut down and woven together 

 in the strong way seen in parts of Kent on the hills. 



The English fruit garden is often a museum of varieties, many 

 of them worthless and not even known to the owner. This is wrong 

 in the garden, and doubly so in the orchard, where 

 Kinds to plant, the fruit trees should be trees in stature and none 

 of poor quality. Too many varieties is partly the 

 result of the seeking after new kinds in the nurseries. In orchard 

 culture we should be chary of planting any new kind, and with the 

 immense number of Apples grown in our own country already, we 

 may choose kinds of enduring fame. It is the more necessary to 

 do this now when good Apples are coming from various countries, 

 where men do not plant a collection when they want a crop of a few 

 first-rate kinds. So we should in our orchards never plant single 

 trees, but always, having chosen a good kind, plant enough 

 to make it worth gathering. Local kinds and local circumstances 

 often deserve the first attention, and some local kinds of fruit 

 are among the best. When in doubt always end it by choosing 

 kinds of proved quality rather than any novelties that may be 

 offered. Any fruit requiring the protection of walls or in the least 

 tender should never be put in the orchard. It is probable that some 

 of the fruit trees of Northern and Central Europe, and Russia, would 

 be well suited for our climate, but as yet little is known of these 

 except that they are interesting and many of them distinct. The 

 vigour of the tree should be considered and its fertility. Kinds 

 rarely fertile are not worth having, always bearing in mind, how- 

 ever, that a good kind is often spoiled by a bad stock or by conditions 

 unsuited to it. 



The beauty of flower of certain varieties may well influence in 



their choice. Once when talking with Mr Ruskin 



The flowers of of the beauty of the fruit as compared with the 



fruit trees. flower of our northern fruit trees, he said in 



reply to some praise of the fruit beauty : " Give 



me the flower and spare me the stomach-ache!" 



In view of the confusion brought about by fat catalogues, new 

 varieties of doubtful value, the number of early kinds worthless for 

 winter and spring use, and the planting of untried kinds, a good rule 

 would be to put any kind we propose to plant under separate study 

 as to its merits in all ways, and only plant one kind a year. The 

 kind chosen for orchard culture should be of undoubted merit and 



