74 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GA11DKN". 



as they are properly cultivated. The great advantage 

 reaped by the planter is the constant productiveness 

 of his trees; from the second year after planting they 

 will be always " paying their way." 



The unprejudiced fruit cultivator will quickly find 

 out the great advantage of my mode of apple and 

 pear cultivation. 



In the usual old-fashioned mode, Standard apple 

 trees are planted in orchards at 20 feet apart, or 108 

 trees to the acre ; if the soil be good and the trees 

 properly planted, and the planter a healthy, middle- 

 aged man, he may hope, at the end of his threescore 

 and ten, to see his trees commencing to bear, and may 

 die with the reflection that he has left a valuable 

 orchard as a legacy to his children, but has not had 

 much enjoyment of it during his life. Now, although, 

 like most fathers, I have a strong wish to benefit my 

 children, I hold the idea that one ought also to think 

 of one's own gratification ; and so I have planted, and 

 recommend the planting of such as will give me some 

 satisfaction, yet leave a fertile legacy to my chil- 

 dren. 



A French pomologist, who paid me a visit last 

 year, said, " Ah ! now I find an Englishman planting 

 for himself as well as for his children :" and went on 

 to say that he was struck by seeing in England so 

 many Standard trees in market gardens, the planters 

 of which could have derived but small benefit from 

 them ; and the apparent ignorance of fruit gardening 

 as a lucrative occupation. This he, in fact, imputed 

 to our climate, which, Frenchman-like, he thought 

 totally unfit for fruit culture in the open air, yet felt 



