288 SCIENCE IX SHORf CHAPTERS. 



The most luxuriant growth of cherries, currants, gooseberries, and 

 raspberries I have ever seen in any part of the world that I have 

 visited, is where they might be least expected viz. Norway not the 

 South of Norway merely, but more particularly in the valleys that 

 slope from the 500 square miles of the perpetual ice desert of the 

 Justedal down to the Sognefjord, latitude 61 to 6l, considerably j 

 to the north of the northernmost of the Shetland Islands. The 

 cherry and currant trees are marvellous there. 



In the garden of one of the farm stations (Sande) I counted 70 

 fine bunches of red currants growing on six inches of one of the 

 overladen down-hanging stems of a currant bush. Cherries are 

 served for dessert by simply breaking off a small branch of the tree 

 and bringing it to the table the fruit almost as many as the leaves. 



This luxuriance I attribute to two causes. First, that in that part 

 of Norway the winter breaks up suddenly at about the beginning of 

 June, and not until then, when night frosts are no longer possible, 

 do the blossoms appear. It was on the 24th August that 1 counted 

 the 70 bunches of ripe currants. The second cause is the absence of 

 sparrows and other destructive small birds that devour our currants 

 for the seeds' sake before they ripen, and our cherries immediately 

 on ripening. These are preceded by the bullfinches that feed on the 

 tender hearts of the buds of most of our fruit trees. Those who be- 

 lieve the newspaper myths which represent such thick-billed birds 

 eating caterpillars, should make observations and experiments for 

 themselves as I have done. 



In our canvas conservatories neither sparrows nor caterpillars, nor 

 wasps, or other fruit-stealers will penetrate, nor will the spring frosts 

 nip the blossoms that open out in April. All the conditions for full 

 bearing are there fulfilled, and the ripening season, though not so 

 intense, will be prolonged. We shall have an insular Jersey climate 

 in London, where the mean temperature is higher than in the coun- 

 try around, and, if I am not quite deluded, we shall be able to grow 

 the choicest Jersey pears, those that best ripen by hanging on the 

 tree until the end of December, and fine peaches, which are com- 

 monly destroyed by putting forth their blossoms so early. All the 

 hundred-and-one varieties of plums and damsons, greengages, etc., 

 that can grow in temperate climates will be similarly protected from 

 the frosts that kill their early blossoms, and the birds and the wasps 

 that will not give them time to ripen slowly. 



I have little doubt that if my project is carried out, any London 

 householder whether rich or poor, may indulge in delicious desserts 

 of rich fruit all grown on the sites of their own now dirty and deso- 

 late back-yards ; that if prizes be given for the most prolific branches 

 of cherry and plum trees, gooseberry and currant bushes, the gardens 

 of the Seven-dials and of classic St. Giles's may carry off some of the 

 gold medals ; and that, by judicious economy of space and proper 

 pruning of the trees, the canvas conservatories may be made not only 

 to serve as orchard houses, but also to grow the salads, kitchen herbs, 

 and green vegetables for cookery under the fruit trees or close around 

 their stems. 



Among the suitable vegetables, I may name a sort of perennial 

 spinach which yields a wonderful amount of produce on a small area. 



Four years ago I took the house in which I now reside, and found 

 the garden overgrown with a weed that appeared like beet, the leaves 



