On Pitting Apples. 283 



Old Golden Pippin ; to which may be added Coe's Golden 

 Drop, a most excellent late table apple. The trees must 

 be chosen with stems not exceeding 1 ft. 6 in. In Sep- 

 tember I generally look over the trees, take off superfluous 

 wood, and shorten the long shoots ; this strengthens the 

 bloom buds which are formed abundantly upon the young wood 

 of all the sorts named : of course, in doing this, an eye must be 

 had to the formation of the tree, which ought to be gradually 

 brought into a handsome round bush. For the first five years, 

 a row of strawberries may be grown between each row of 

 apples, or any other dwarf light crop ; but strawberries are 

 most in keeping, a word which, in every gardening operation, 

 ought never to be lost sight of. Let me add, they ought to be 

 worked on Paradise stocks* or the small wild crab, (mine are 

 on the last, J 1 not by any means on the free stock raised from 

 apple pips, the very worst stock that can be used. 



Now this cacoethes scribendi is upon me (it is a wet day), 

 allow me a little more space, merely to give you one of the 

 best recipes for keeping hares and rabbits from apple trees. I 

 write from experience ; for, till I used it, I had annually a great 

 many trees destroyed in spite of every precaution. Take the 

 commonest train oil and hog's lard (if stale it can be bought 

 cheaper), mix them well, till they are of the consistence of 

 thick paste, which the mixture will much resemble, and apply 

 it rather sparingly with a painter's brush. This will effectually 

 keep off those destructive vermin, and not injure the tree, as 

 the lard neutralises the pernicious effects of the oil. 



I am, Sir, yours, &c. 

 October 10. Malus. 



Art. IX. Note of the liesidt of an Experiment made at Bret- 

 ton Hall on pitting Apples. In a Letter to Mr. Donald, of 

 Woking. By Mr. Robert Marnock, Foreman of the 

 Kitchen-garden at Bretton Hall. Communicated by Mr. 

 Donald, F.H.S. 



Sir, 

 Having an uncommonly large crop of apples here last 

 season, we adopted your plan of keeping them (Gard. Mag., 

 vol. i. p. 268.), by putting them in pits in autumn, where they 

 remained all winter, until taken up a few days since ; and they 

 still retain the same degree of hardness as when pulled from 



