290 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[September 15, 1888. 



which never wearies. A man between seventy and 

 eighty can make the superintendence of orchards 

 both his pleasure and employment. 



We have not, I think, in England held enongh 

 meetings of this kind ; they are frequent enough in 

 the United States, where fruit is an important factor 

 in national life, and takes rank with the most 

 ad""inced agriculture. In Belgium, a country which 

 profits largely from the exportation of fruit, pomo- 

 ■logical congresses are constantly held. I have 

 •attended several, my first introduction to Belgian 

 pomologists being at Namur in 1862, when the hos- 

 pitality of the town was profuse and splendid. There 

 can be little doubt that these meetings are of great 

 public utility, and now that we are entering the lists 

 and preparing to meet aa enormous and increasing 

 domestic want, it does not become a great and 

 wealthy country like England to be anywhere but 

 first in the race. Our climate is good, our soil so 

 varied that we can find land for all ordinary crops. 

 Although we are subject to cold and late springs, 

 yet we do not suffer from the extremes of heat and 

 cold to which great continents are subject, storms 

 which destroy the fruit, and cold which will destroy 

 the trees. Neither is it so equable that fruit trees 

 are exhausted by continual bearing — a condition 

 under which eight to ten 'years would be the 

 term of the natural life of the tree — conditions 

 which would, no doubt, be satisfactory to the 

 fruit tree grower, but with the inevitable result of 

 the supply overtaking the demand, and of the 

 usual disastrous consequence. Of this, however, we 

 need have no fear. We must, in order to secure 

 early profits from a garden orchard such as I pro- 

 pose, plant on a different principle to that of our 

 forefathers, who have bequeathed the hoary and 

 lichen-covered trees dear to the artist and fruit- 

 loving boys and girls. These picturesque old trees 

 are as much things of the past as our wooden three- 

 ■fleckers, and instead of the acre of grassland with 

 the customary 108 trees often broken down by stock, 

 ■and producing more wood than fruit, the modern 

 fruit orchard must be condensed into a compact 

 compass, give more fruit in 1 rood of land than in 

 2 or 3 acres of the old-fashioned style. 



Soil. — The most important part of the preparation 

 of an orchard is, of course, the quality of the soil, 

 and the intending planter should not hesitate to 

 spend a few shillings in obtaining an analysis. I 

 attribute a great part of my success in fruit growing 

 to the nature and qualities of the soil. An analysis 

 made by Dr. Voelcker for Mr. Prout, of Sawbridge- 

 worth, gives the following constituents of the land 

 on his farm, mine being the same formation, and 

 closely identical. The quantities are contained in 

 a depth of 6 inches per acre :— , 



2\ tons 



Phosphoric acid 



Potash 



Lime 



24 tons 1 Sulphuric acid 

 5£ „ Nitric acid ... 

 37 „ Nitrogen 



I shall show presently by an analysis of fruit that 

 the inherent qualities of this soil are vastly favour- 

 able for certain classes of fruits, and if the depth in- 

 stead of 6 inches is extended to 20 inches, to which 

 the roots of fruit trees will reach in searching for 

 food, the aliment afforded is of inexhaustible amount. 

 With our present knowledge of artificial manures all 

 deficiencies in other soils may, however, be easily 

 supplied ; but I hope that you will agree with me 

 that an analysis of the soil is indispensable, and that 

 it is necessary not to judge only by appearance, but 

 to gain an intimate knowledge of the soil con- 

 stituents. A deep rich loam is sometimes mislead- 

 ing, and trees, though apparently vigorous at first, 

 being deprived of their requisite food will become 

 cankered and stag-headed. The cultivator must 

 Inake it his business to cure this defect, which an 

 eleTaentary knowledge of chemistry and of the appli- 

 cation of chemical manures will enable him to do. 

 The position of the orchard is another important 

 point. It is, I think, Well known that frosts are 

 more severe in low-lying lands near riVers, and fruit 

 tlrees should consequently be planted'above the line 

 indicated by the rising mists. 



The preparation of the soil is the next point, and 

 I will assume that a man with 100 acres of land can 

 afford to devote 1 rood for the cultivation of an 

 orchard ; this must be fenced with wire netting high 

 enough to keep out hares and rabbits during snow, 

 as one night's visitation of these animals would 

 suffice to destroy the growth of years and to ruin 

 the plantation. In my own case I have sunk a 

 barbed wire to prevent burrowing. Wire netting is 

 so cheap that this expense is not great, and with 

 proper care it will last for years. At all events, it 

 must be incurred, for although rabbits may be utterly 

 destroyed, hares will travel for miles in search of 

 food. In Belgium, in the fruit-growing districts, 

 they are altogether absent, but it is not likely that 

 this will ever be the case in England. The land, if 

 at all infested with Twitch, should have a summer's 

 fallow to eradicate the pest, as it cannot be easily 

 destroyed when the trees are planted. It will grow 

 amongst the roots, and is then most difficult to deal 

 with. As early in September or October as prac- 

 ticable the rood of land, having been previously 

 dressed with some 12 or 15 tons of good farmyard 

 manure, should be trenched to the depth of 24 inches, 

 the top soil being kept at the top, and the bottom 

 broken up and turned over. I am convinced that 

 this costs about Is. (id. , per square rod, or £3 for the 

 rood, according to the tenacity of the soil, and is ab- 

 solutely necessary, as I have found from experience 

 that my plantations made in a soil which has been 

 frequently trenched bear more abundantly, and give 

 finer fruit, and are more healthy than those which I 

 have planted in holes only without moving the sur- 

 rounding soil. The rood of land trenched and fenced 

 will be ready for the reception of the trees in 

 November, the soil being pulverised and settled. 

 Considerable expense having been incurred, I pro- 

 pose to show that the planter will be able to recoup 

 himself by the number of trees he can plant and 

 the consequent produce. The rood of land will 

 accommodate about 400 trees — that is, 200 trees 

 planted 9 feet apart row from row and 6 feet apart 

 in the rows of Plums, Apples, and Pears, and 200 

 bushes of Currants and Gooseberries between at 

 6 feet apart in the rows. The rood, therefore, will 

 contain as many Apples and Plums as 2 acres of the 

 ordinary farm orchard, and enough bush fruits to 

 pay all rent and expenses, and will be protected 

 from all injury from stock and game, and without 

 such protection it is usless to plant. 



Plums. — In my own district the Plum is the 

 most valuable fruit I have, and it is not difficult 

 to explain the reason of this superiority. The Plum, 

 according to an analysis drawn out by Mr. Edmund 

 Tonks, of Birmingham, contains : — 



59*21 potash 15-10 phosphorus 



10-00 lime 3-83 sulphur 



5-46 magnesia j 2'36 silicon 



3-30 iron ! 



All of which constituents are largely present in 

 my soil. It is one of the most valuable fruits of our 

 domestic economy, it makes a delicious and nutri- 

 tious preserve, and during the months of July, 

 August, September, October, and even in November, 

 it may be present daily on the dinner table either 

 cooked or uncooked, and I believe that certain 

 classes of the Germans almost exist on the fruit, 

 such are its nourishing qualities. The sort which I 

 plant the most extensively is the Early Rivers or 

 Early Prolific ; this was raised by my father some 

 fifty years since, and in the most disastrous seasons 

 I have never known it completely fail. I believe 

 this immunity to be owing to the fact that from its 

 precocity (as I have known the whole crop gathered 

 by the 5th August) the tree has time to recover its 

 strength in the period of nearly eight months which 

 elapses between the gathering and the next season's 

 blooming. The density of the fruit is very great, as 

 it weighs 70 lbs. to the bushel. This is against the 

 producer, and it ought to be sold by weight. I 

 believe that as a dried fruit it will fully equal the 

 dried French Plums. Close to the gathering of the 

 Early Prolific I have the Czar, a large purple 

 blue Plum of abundant fertility ; then the Sultan, 

 and at the end of September Prince Eng'el- 



bert and Pond's Seedling ; and beginning of 

 October the Monarch, Archduke, and Grand 

 Duke. I have discarded the Diamond, Eeine Claude 

 de Bavay, Reine Claude d'Oullins, Belgian Purple, 

 as too uncertain for market Plums. Eor the farm 

 orchard the interval between the Sultan and Pond's 

 Seedling should be filled up by the Victoria, Green 

 Gage, Gisborne's, and the Pershore, all of which 

 are well-known market Plums, and are equally 

 suitable for cooking, preserving, and drying, and I 

 hope one day to see the grocers' shops continually 

 supplied with these Plums of British manufacture. 

 The Cluster Damson, well known for its enormous 

 fertility ; the Prune and Shropshire Damsons are 

 also very important fruits which should find a place. 

 The sort of tree to be planted should be what are 

 usually called two or three years unpruned standards, 

 the younger the better, as the transplanting causes 

 little injury to young trees. I may here mention 

 that the Early Rivers does not prosper in my soil 

 when grafted on the Mussel stock. The future 

 health of a plantation depends very much on the 

 stocks used, and it is therefore necessary to be par- 

 ticular on this head. • . 



Apples. — The fruit which stands most in national 

 importance is of course the Apple, and it seems 

 strange that we should allow foreign nations to usurp 

 our position in the supply of this very necessary want. 

 In the 200 trees required for the rood I should 

 apportion 100 Apple trees, and for a continual sup- 

 ply of culinary fruit Keswick Codlin, Duchess of 

 Oldenburg, Lord Suffield, Stirling Castle, Worcester 

 Pearmain, Manks Codlin, Ecklinville Seedling, Lord 

 Grosvenor, Warner's King, Blenheim Orange, Bax- 

 ter's Pearmain, Lady Henniker, Tower of Glamis, 

 Betty Geeson, Dumelow's Seedling, will last from 

 August to the end of April ; of dessert Apples, Red 

 Juneating, Irish Peach, Summer Golden Pippin, 

 Devonshire Quarrenden, Williams' Favourite, Ribs- 

 ton Pippin, Cox's Orange Pippin, King of the Pip- 

 pins, Blenheim Orange, Mannington's Pearmain, 

 Lord Burghley, Sturmer Pippin, Allen's Everlasting, 

 will give a supply from June to May. On the 

 Paradise stock all these Apples will form fruitful and 

 profitable bushes and are all marketable Apples, and 

 in my opinion are very much better than any Baldwins 

 or Newtown Pippins. Some of these kinds, such as 

 the Manx Codlin and Stirling Castle, can be planted 

 6 feet apart. Worked on the Crab stock, they are so 

 fertile that they are soon dwarfed by the production 

 of fruit. As with Plums, I should recommend trees 

 two or three years old being planted. Of Apples of 

 recent introduction I have not found Mr. Gladstone 

 so good as it was represented. It is not earlier than 

 the Juneating, is very unequal in size, and has the 

 unpleasant habit of being in a constant perspiration. 

 Lady Henniker is a large and fine Apple. Pease- 

 good's Nonsuch is very handsome and large, but 

 does not bear so freely in my soil as the Apples I have 

 named. The stock English Apple, the Blenheim 

 Pippin, is a long time coming into bearing, but when 

 fruitful always commands a high price ; this and the 

 Dumelow's Seedling would, no doubt, be valuable 

 for cutting into chips and rings. 



The analysis of the Apple differs from the Plum. 

 There are present : — 



Potash 



... 35-68 



Iron 



... 1-40 



Soda 



... 26.09 



Phosphoru 



i 13-59 



Lime 



... 1-08 



Sulphur- 



... 6-09 



Magnesia 



... 8-75 ■ 



Silica 



... 4-32 



Pears. — The Pear is the next in rank as an industrial 

 fruit, but it by no means equals the Apple or the Plum 

 in importance ; indeed, during a great part of the year 

 it is seen only on the tables of the wealthy. I have, 

 however, had a considerable experience of Pears as 

 standard trees. Within my recollection I have seen 

 planted and destroyed the following sorts : — Summer 

 Bergamot, Lammas, Passans da Portugal, Windsor, 

 Williams' Bon Chretien, Dunmore, B. d'Amanlis, 

 Marie Louise, Louise Bonne of Jersey, Winter 

 Crassanne, BeurrS de Capiaumont, Beurrf Bosc, Comte 

 de Lamy, Hessle, and Spring Beurre, none of which 

 ever paid the rent of the ground they occupied. I 

 have, however, raised three sorts of Pears which will 

 reverse this position. These are the Beacon, ripen- 



