47 



at Crockenhill: — Golden Spire, Graham's 

 Royal Jubilee, Duchess Favourite, Scarlet 

 Nonpareil, Grenadier (the latter makes 

 a good plantation with Bramley, Grena- 

 dier being a smaller grower, whilst Bram- 

 ley makes a large tree, though somewhat 

 slower in coming into bearing), Baumann's 

 Red Winter Reinette (though not good 

 quality is a good keeper), Smith's Im- 

 proved Yellow Ingestre and Early Vic- 

 toria; of newer varieties Ben's Red, Rival, 

 Norfolk Beauty, Foster's Seedling, and 

 King Edward VII. are being tried. 



In Worcestershire, the varieties chiefly 

 planted include Bramley, Lord Grosvenor, 

 New^ton Wonder, Stirling Castle, Lane's 

 Prince Albert, Ecklinville (where it suits), 

 and Early Victoria, and for dessert only 

 Worcester Pearmain is considered to pay, 

 though Allington and James Grieve are 

 being tried. Saltmarsh's The Queen is 

 found to be a good cooking sort. As an 

 example of a variety that thrives well in 

 one district and badly in another 

 " Warner's King " may be mentioned; it 

 is liable to canker in Kent, but luxuriates 

 at Toddington, where it is one of the best 

 varieties, does not canker, and crops well 

 even when planted in block. 



Cox's Orange Pippin is the Queen of 

 English apples, but it has proved so dis- 

 appointing in many plantations that in a 

 district where it is not known to prosper, 

 it is advisable only to plant in small quan- 

 tity on trial, it is a variety that particu- 

 larly wants cross-pollination. Worcester 

 Pearmain has in many cases been proved 

 to be a good pollenizer for it. It is a 

 variety more fanciful than most varieties 

 as to cross-pollination. 



Blenheim Orange is perhaps the next 

 best apple, especially in Worcestershire, 

 but takes long to bear and is now but 

 little planted; near Malvern, are trees on 

 pasture that took twenty years to come 

 into bearing, but then yielded about 6 

 pots of fruit each. 



The old King of Pippins, the Reine de 

 Reinettes of the French, is a good dessert 

 apple where the trees grow healthily. 

 For anyone who wishes to know some- 

 thing of the history of the different kinds 

 of fi'uit, I would recommend the last 

 editions of Bunyard's Fruit Catalogue 

 (price 6d.), in which Mr. Edward Bunyard 

 gives the origin of a great many of the 



fruits. The facts are quite int^resting, 

 and add poetry to the prose of fruit 

 growing. 



For lifaudard apple trees planted in 

 pasture fields, the distance apart recom- 

 mended for planting is 30ft. to 40ft., 

 according to variety and soil, and for 

 half standards in cultivated fruit plan- 

 tations 18ft. to 30ft. apart, according to 

 variety, etc. Wide holes should be dug 

 for the trees and the soil stirred deeply 

 and made fine to encourage quick rooting. 



Bush Apples. 



During the last 20 or 30 years the plant- 

 ing of " bush " apples has gradually 

 become popular in preference to standard 

 and half-standard trees. To the late Mr. 

 Thoaaas Rivers, of Sawbridgeworth, is 

 chiefly due the introduction of this form 

 of tree. The various dwarfing stocks on 

 which apples are budded or grafted is 

 being specially studied at Mailing and 

 Long Ashton fruit experiment stations. 



Reliable, painstaking nurserymen, from 

 experience, have found which stock, 

 whether broad leaved English Paradise, 

 Nonsuch, or free stock are best suited to 

 a certain variety of apple, and supply it; 

 most of the stocks, up to the war, came 

 from France, chiefly from Orleans. Many 

 plantations, however, have suffered from 

 trees being worked on unsuitable stock. 

 To avoid this the best information on the 

 subject should be obtained, known and 

 classified in order that the trade should 

 not be dependent merely on the good 

 judgment of experienced foremen. 



The advantage of " bush " apple trees 

 over tall standards and half-standards is 

 their " get-at-ableness " for pruning, 

 spraying, and gathering, and their earlier 

 fruiting. They begin to be profitable 

 at four years old, whereas a standard 

 apple tree does not bear very much up 

 to ten years old, after that its production 

 augments rapidly to 35 or 40 years, from 

 then up to 50 or 60 it is at its maximum 

 state of fertility; after that it declines, 

 and at the age of 80 is unprofitable to 

 keep longer. 



I have somewhere seen the following 

 estimate of the average apple crop of 

 Great Britain : 70 million bushels of apples 

 from 27,200,000 trees, allowing an average 

 of two bushels per tree, 160 trees per acre 



