Hints on Vegetable and Fruit Farming. 29 



occasionally. Bushes of this kind that were transplanted last 

 March were full of rosy apples in October. Very little pruning 

 is necessary for bushes, and they may be cultivated most pro- 

 fitably in the gardens of farms, as they take up little space, and 

 their fruit is usually well-grown, and but little attention to 

 them is necessary. It would be well if farmers would grub up 

 the wide-spreading, rarely-bearing fruit-trees of common kinds, 

 which take up so much space in their gardens, and in the cus- 

 tomary orchards near their houses, and plant bushes or pyramids 

 which would be highly ornamental and certainly profitable. A 

 little pruning and pinching the shoots is all that is required. 

 Their prices range from I5. Qd. to 2s. ^d. each. But planters 

 must have a guarantee from the nurseryman that they are bond 

 fide Paradise stocks and not crab-stocks. Everything depends 

 upon the stocks in these as in other fruit-trees. 



With regard to the demand for apples, it is very great and 

 increasing. Within the last few years a demand has arisen even 

 for the most common apples for mixing with other fruit for jam — 

 to serve as " stock " in fact. Dessert apples of good colour and 

 flavour are always most saleable. Consumers of such fruit well 

 know what high prices they have to give for it, even in the most 

 plentiful seasons. In short, it cannot too strongly be iterated 

 that a wide field is open to occupiers and owners of land and 

 the possessors of the humblest garden for the culture of apple- 

 trees according to the best systems ; and that by planting well- 

 selected, well-raised trees, either half-standards or pyramids, or 

 espaliers, or cordons, or bushes, a quick return may be insured. 



Pear-TKEES are more delicate than apple-trees ; their blos- 

 soming is earlier, and therefore at a more critical season, while 

 they do not bear extremely hard winters so well. 



Pear-trees are largely cultivated in East Kent and Gloucester- 

 shire upon grass and in plantations, and in Herefordshire and 

 Worcestershire upon grass. There is no reason why their culti- 

 vation, and especially of the finest sorts, should not be largely 

 extended in all but, perhaps, the most northern counties of 

 England. Fine-grown pears always are in great request, at 

 full prices, at least to consumers. 



The methods of planting, of protecting, of the general manage- 

 ment, and pruning are very similar to those described in the 

 case of apple-trees, though the distance between the trees may be 

 somewhat lessened, unless plum-trees or damson-trees are planted 

 between the pear-trees, as sometimes is done by fruit-growers 

 in Kent, where they are set I'Z yards apart. Half-standards 

 raised upon Quince stocks may be set much more closely in 

 plantations ; and bushes may be set more closely still, and 

 planted with very good results, both in large plantations and 



