THE ROSE, POME, AND DRUPE FAMILY. 493 



will be quite strong ; but to make the matter doubly sure, the 

 best way is to tie with a string which has been saturated with 

 hot grafting-wax. Pears, Plums, and Cherries may be grafted 

 in this way, only the root should be left longer, and only the 

 collar cut used. The next important matter is the proper care 

 of the grafts. I have been most successful by packing them 

 upright in a shallow box, say one inch deeper than the grafts 

 are long, after dipping one-half of the roots into a puddle made 

 of clay and fresh cow-dung, and filling up with sand, leaving 

 about an inch of the scion above the surface. The boxes of 

 grafts should then be stored in a dark part of the cellar until 

 frost is over and the ground is quite ready to receive them." 

 The Apple is the finest and most universally useful of all our 

 hardy fruits ; and lacking that great and much-to-be-hoped-for 

 national garden, in which the rational principles of fruit-culture 

 could be practically taught to our artisans, and from which 

 scions or fruit-trees of the best kinds only could be distributed, 

 let us hope that country gentlemen or clergymen will take up 

 the subject of fruit-culture, and distribute trees to the working 

 population who have gardens in their vicinity, or teach them 

 how to raise stocks and graft them for themselves. Here is a 

 field of noble labour for the philanthropist ; and in the case of 

 the country gentleman or landed proprietor who urges the cul- 

 ture of fruit-trees in the gardens and allotments on his estate, 

 it brings its own reward. Surely while it is remunerative to 

 import Apples from America, and dessert Pears from France 

 and the Channel Islands, it would pay to grow them at home. 

 An Apple-tree will grow in any hedgerow in the kingdom, it 

 requires little or no care after planting, and will pay at least a 

 hundred per cent more than hedgerow timber-trees, which in 

 many cases are of no value except for firewood. In Belgium 

 the railway embankments are now utilised for fruit-tree culture, 

 and it is questionable whether any class of farming or market- 

 gardening is more profitable than fruit-growing for market, as 

 carried out by such intelligent cultivators as Mr F. Dancer or 

 Messrs Rivers. 



The Siberian Crab (Pyrus prunifolia) deserves the more 

 close attention of fruit-growers and hybridisers for two reasons 

 viz., it vegetates very early in the spring and is singularly 

 hardy in constitution ; indeed, so marked is its power of resist- 

 ing cold spring frosts that its blossoms rarely suffer, and a pro- 

 fuse crop of fruit is invariably produced. There are two well- 

 marked forms one bearing golden-yellow fruit the size of 

 Gooseberries, while the other bears smaller bright scarlet fruits, 

 and is popularly known as the "Cherry Apple." For orna- 



