APP 



[59] 



APP 



Kerry pippin ; Pitmanton nonpareil ; 

 Court of Wick ; King of pippins ; Golden 

 reinette ; Adam's pearmain ; Boston rus- 

 set ; Early harvest ; Early Margaret ; 

 Stunner pippin ; Pubston pippin. 



Espaliers and dwarfs. Kitchen. Haw- 

 thornden ; Alfriston ; Pitmaston nonpa- 

 reil ; Manks codling ; Wareham russet ; 

 Blenheim orange ; Chappell ; Keswick 

 codling ; Waltham- abbey seedling. 



Standard. Kitclien. Northern green- 

 ing, or John ; Manks codling ; Chappell ; 

 Wareham russet ; Blenheim orange ; 

 Normanton, or Dumelow's seedling ; 

 Keswick codling ; Hawthornden ; Bed- 

 fordshire foundling ; Reinette du Cana- 

 da ; Emperor Alexander ; Dutch cod- 

 ling ; Wormsley pippin ; Waltham-abbey 

 seedling; Alfriston. 



For walls. Bibston pippin ; Old non- 

 pareil ; Newtown pippin ; Stunner pip- 

 pin. 



Propagation by seed. Sow in autumn 

 the largest and most convex seeds, of a 

 favoured variety, in pots or border of light 

 rich loam ; bury the seed an inch deep ; 

 if in a border, six inches apart each way. 

 Mr. London says, " The end of the first 

 year they .should be transplanted into 

 nursery rows, from six inches to a foot 

 apart every way. Afterwards they 

 should be removed to where they are to 

 produce fruit ; and for this purpose the 

 greater the distance between the plants 

 the better. It should not be less than 

 six or eight feet every way. The quick- 

 est way to bring them into a bearing state, 

 Mr. Williams of Pitmaston considers, 

 is to let the plants be furnished with 

 lateral shoots, from the ground upwards, 

 so disposed as that the leaves of the up- 

 per shoots may not shade those situated 

 underneath, pruning away only trfling 

 shoots. He adopted this mode, and suc- 

 ceeded in procuring fruit from seedling 

 apples at four, five, and six years of age, 

 instead of waiting eight, ten, and even 

 fifteen years, which must be the case by 

 the usual mode of planting close and 

 pruning to naked stems." 



The advice of Mr. Williams is very 

 good ; but we must remind our readers 

 that most of our shy, flowering, arbo- 

 rescent or shrubby plants or trees are 

 the soonest brought to blossom by first 

 encouraging a high amount of luxuriance, 



and then inducing a severe check by 

 root-pruning. By such means, carefully 

 carried out, there can be no doubt that 

 seedling apples may be made to blossom 

 in four years. The check may either 

 consist in a severe root-pruning, or the 

 plants may be transplanted ; taking care 

 to prune away all taper forked roots, and 

 using all possible means to encourage 

 surface fibres. 



We may here add, that the less prun- 

 ing of the shoots the better ; the knife is 

 a great enemy to early fruitfulness in 

 young trees, especially codlings. 



Most good cultivators and we believe 

 we may include the highly scientific 

 authority of the late Mr. Knight of 

 Downton prefer grafting the shoots of 

 seedling apples when two years old, on 

 very old, healthy, and fine-bearing kinds. 

 In doing so, the extremities of the best 

 branches should be chosen, as also the 

 lightest portion of the tree, which should 

 stand in a sheltered and warm situation. 



Mr. Knight states, that " The width 

 and thickness of the leaf generally indi- 

 cates the size of the future apple, but 

 will by no means convey any correct 

 idea of the merits of the future fruit. 

 When these have the character of high 

 cultivation, the qualities of the fruit will 

 be far removed from those of the native 

 species ; but the apple may be insipid or 

 highly flavoured, green or deeply co- 

 loured, and of course well or ill calcu- 

 lated to answer the purposes of the 

 planter. An early blossom in the spring, 

 and an early change of colour in the au- 

 tumnal leaf, would naturally be supposed 

 to indicate a fruit of early maturity ; 

 but I have never been able to discover 

 any criterion of this kind on which the 

 smallest dependance may be placed. The 

 leaves of some varieties will become yel- 

 low and fall ofl", leaving the fruit green 

 and immature ; and the leaves in other 

 kinds will retain their verdure long after 

 the fruit has perished. The plants whose 

 buds in the annual wood are full and 

 prominent are usually more productive 

 than those whose buds are small and 

 shrunk in the bark ; but their future 

 produce will depend much on the power 

 the blossoms possess of bearing the cold, 

 and this power varies in the varieties, 

 and can only be known from experience. 



