UTILISATION OF WALLS AND BUILDINGS PLUMS. 307 



house ends and sides, standard horizontal trained for buildings to which cattle have access, 

 protecting the stems. "Upright trained trees cost 3s. 6d. to 5s. each ; dwarf horizontal 

 trained, 3s. 6d. (two tiers) to 5s. (three tiers) ; standards trained, 5s. to 7s. 6d. Trained 

 trees commence bearing the year after planting, if then of good size, and they are in good 

 bearing at six or seven years from planting. One pound of fruit per square foot is a full 

 average crop, price Id. to 3d. per pound for summer and autumn fruit; 3d. to 6d. for 

 winter fruit. Boxed fruit brings from 9d. to 9s. per dozen, extra large fruits realising 

 12s. or more per dozen. The average price for specimen fruit is 9d. to Is. 6d. in 

 the summer and early autumn ; Is. 6d. to 3s. for winter ; and 3s. to 6s. per dozen in 

 the spring. Extra fine fruit is eagerly sought after by fruiterers, and they will give 

 special prices for choice specimens. Small or ill-shaped pears are only fit for packing 

 in sieves, and do not pay nearly so well as the best fruit. 



For garden walls, cordon trees on quince stocks are the most quickly profitable. 

 Maiden trees cost Is. to Is. 6d. each 8s. to 12s. per dozen. They may be planted 

 18 inches to 2 feet apart, and trained diagonally. Double-grafted trees may be pur- 

 chased at 2s. to 2s. 6d. each (1 year old) ; older trees cost 3s. 6d. to 5s. each. Trees 

 planted as maidens come into bearing in the second or third year afterwards. They 

 produce the largest and highest-coloured fruits. The fruit must be thinned, and the 

 trees mulched and well supplied with water or liquid manure in the summer, especially 

 in rather light soils during hot seasons. 



Plums. Varieties : Denniston's Superb, Early Transparent, Green Gage, Bryan- 

 ston Gage, Golden Transparent, Eeine Claude de Bavay these gage plums require to 

 be well thinned when the trees bear heavily, so as to have the fruit fine. Jefferson, 

 Kirke's, and Coe's Golden Drop all dessert plums of the first order; Czar, Victoria, 

 and Monarch good for eating or cooking ; White Magnum Bonum, and Pond's 

 Seedling for compotes and preserving. Plum trees succeed in any good soil, prefer- 

 ably strong and stony. Light soils should be well firmed. Dwarf maiden trees cost 

 Is. each ; good dwarf fan trained, 3s. 6d. to 5s. each ; standard fan trained for high 

 walls or buildings, 5s. to 7s. 6d. each. Maiden trees commence bearing in the third 

 year after planting ; trained trees in the first or second year. When six or seven years 

 old they become profitable. Half to a pound of fruit per superficial foot is a full crop. 

 Overbearing must be guarded against by judicious early thinning, so as to secure 

 large fruit; for, unless much superior to plantation fruit, it will not pay (as it ought) 

 for packing in boxes. Good fruit sells for 9d. to Is. per dozen, and sometimes double 



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