APPENDIX. 105 



FRUIT GROWING IN KENT. 



The following extract, taken from a horticultural journal, 

 seems to show such strong confirmation of what has been 

 written in the foregoing articles respecting wall fruit, that 

 it is hoped that any doubters, who are able to do so, will 

 go, and, as suggested, judge for themselves, by a trip to 

 Bexley, one of the most prosperous of the fruit-growing 

 suburbs of London. A whole day may be spent there in 

 visiting Messrs. Burton's, Ladd's, Septimus Browne's, Bell's, 

 Dodd's, Tuffin's, and nearly a dozen other establishments 

 in the district. Strawberries, grapes, tomatoes, melons, as 

 well as wall fruit, may all be seen in their respective seasons, 

 grown to perfection by cultivators who have mostly raised 

 themselves, solely by their own industry and skill, to 

 positions of independence by producing fruit and flowers, 

 under glass, for the London market : 



" Messrs. T. Burton and Son, Edith Road, Bexley Heath, 

 Horticultural Builders, have turned their attention to growing 

 as well as building for some time past, and " nothing succeeds 

 like success," seems to be here exemplified to the fullest 

 extent, especially with peaches and nectarines. The large 

 span-roofed house, 24 feet wide by 100 feet long, and ventilated 

 with improved gear, has twenty-two large standard trees 

 loaded with fine fruit. So well have these trees done that Mr. 

 Burton had to widen the house ; the trees looked more like 

 half-standard apple trees, so loaded were they with fruit, and 

 the present season's growth gave ample proof of the healthy 

 condition of the trees. Another portion of this house, more 

 recently added, had been planted with trained trees 



"A span-roofed house 220 feet long, 12 feet wide, inside 

 measurement, was planted with peaches and nectarines, fan 

 trained, seventeen trees on each side, twelve feet apart, with 

 all the best sorts for succession, which give a supply for over 

 three months from the commencement of gathering. Only the 

 earliest sorts were gathered in this house, which was carrying 

 a splendid crop of the varieties named. 



"We may just state here that if Mr. Burton has made any 

 mistake in the cultivation of peaches and nectarines, it is iu 

 having the crops on some of the trees a little too heavy. 



