406 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[Octobbb 13, 1888. 



large numbers in these plantations at the farm. 

 Amongst them some are found which do not 

 succeed — make growth weakly or slowly. These 

 are of a certainty marked for extinction ; as 

 nothing which must be coddled to make it a tree 

 is tolerated ; and it is only when a great number 

 of varieties of any kind of fruit is grown under 

 the same sort of conditions that it is easy to pick 

 out the " weeds." 



A great hedge — or, rather, two hedges — protect 

 this young nursery from the north wind. It is an 

 old English lane, such as all lovers of the picturesque 

 in scenery would admire, which skirts the nursery, 

 and which is bounded on either hand by these 

 old hedges of Ulmus glabra, U. campestris, 

 Hazel, Holly, and other trees whose seeds, in 

 most instances, have blown thither. It is not 

 neat, it might even be considered but 

 little to the credit of the farmer by one of the 

 modern school, but it is a protection, and a good 

 one, to the nursery of young trees. Time nor space 

 permits us to repeat all the encomiums which 

 were lavished by Mr. Rivers on the lane and its 

 hedges, so we will get on to the main nursery grounds, 

 nearer to the village of Sawbridgeworth. 



Hums. — The trees were getting somewhat bare so 

 that the fruit still hanging on them was readily seen, 

 especially Plums. Of these fruits were observed 

 Monarch, the late variety of the future — that is if 

 Mr. Rivers' untried products of hybridisation do not 

 excell it in some points. It is an oval purple- 

 skinned fruit for kitchen use, and a very heavy 

 cropper. Young trees of two and three years bore 

 one to one and a half dozen of fine fruits ; and as 

 earnest of his faith in the variety, Mr. Rivers has 

 planted it largely for fruiting. There is doubtless 

 money in a Plum which, in ordinary seasons, does 

 not ripen before the first week in October, and in 

 late ones fourteen days later. Plum Pond's Seedling 

 is too well known to need much said about it here ; 

 it is simply a late Denyer's Victoria, and a useful 

 kind. Autumn Compote must be classed with 

 Monarch as a valuable late Plum ; it is red in 

 colour, of medium size, and is also an excellent and 

 certain bearer. Late Transparent Gage should be 

 planted generally in the milder parts of the country, 

 either as a bush, standard, or pyramid, doing equally 

 well on them all. It is a delicious fruit with a 

 crackly flesh, ripe usually the first or second week of 

 October from free standing trees, but from trees on all 

 walls but those with a northern aspect it is earlier 

 than this. 



Some other varieties of the Plum which are much 

 thought of at Sawbridgeworth, are, among early ones, 

 The Czar — large purplish fruit ripening at the end 

 of July : the tree is hardy and vigorous of growth ; 

 Early Rivers and Early Favourite, both purple and 

 of medium size. The first is a seedling from Preeoce 

 de Tours, and is an enormous bearer. Grand Duke 

 is a very large black Plum. It is a seedling from 

 Autumn Compote, a red Plum, and ripens about the 

 middle of October. The flavour is good and it is a 

 trustworthy variety to plant. 



Many seedling Plums are under trial, and in due 

 course some fine things will be distributed from 

 among them. This group of Plums is not the produce 

 of chance seedlings, but rather the result of careful, 

 long carried out experiments, many of them having 

 been initiated by the father of the present owner. 

 After years' of waiting some of these varieties have 

 turned out failures, whilst others have immediately 

 met with approval on their being brought into 

 commerce. 



In passing, it may be stated that some of the 

 nursery hedges are of Plum seedlings, Portuguese 

 Quince, and Medlar, the latter budded on the 

 original Whitethorn plant of which the hedge con- 

 sisted, and allowed to grow free with but little 

 trimming. In good years these hedges, which are 

 both tall and thick, are filled with fruit, and the first 

 two afford much food for the birds, to the benefit of 

 the rest of the nursery. 



Some espalier trees of various sorts of Plums were 



observed, their branches running perpendicularly. 

 These had been planted for many years, and from 

 the first secured to wires stretched horizontally from 

 oaken posts. The trees were still very fruitful, and 

 had become capable of standing in position without 

 the wires, although these remained. Similar fences 

 made with upright or diagonal cordons are of Apples 

 and Pears, and serve as wind-breaks to protect 

 quarters of fruit in the same way as ordinary hedges 

 would do, with the additional advantage that the 

 hedge will bear some fruit in most years, and good 

 crops in favourable years. One pruning in summer 

 (July) is sufficient with the ordinary winter pruning 

 to keep these plants neat in appearance and fruitful. 



Orchard Management. — As has already been 

 said, various methods of planting trees for profit 

 may be observed in this nursery, and one of 

 these which will appeal to the intending grower 

 of fruit either on a large or small scale is a 

 quarter, it may be less than a rood, of Apple trees 

 standing at a distance of 9 feet between the rows and 

 6 feet in the rows. The trees, in many cases carry- 

 ing heavy loads of fruit, were simply medium-sized 

 standards minus the stem, for in no case was this 

 2 feet in height, and in many less. Thus the trees 

 were close to the ground, sheltering each other 

 better than standards would do, or being sheltered 

 by the hedges before mentioned ; moreover, every 

 part of the tree was readily reached for gather- 

 ing the fruit and pruning the branches ; no ladder 

 with a man or two to use it, which is in 

 itself an expense, but the whole work of 

 gathering may be done by a boy or girl instead. 

 This kind of orchard planting is just what the farmer 

 who can come to satisfactory terms with his land- 

 lord, if he be not owner of the land, should plant. 

 And if every farmer occupying 100 or more acres of 

 land would carefully prepare a rood or two, and large 

 holders an acre of sheltered or shelterable land of 

 suitable quality, plant it with the right varieties 

 of Plums, Pears, Apples, and chiefly the first and 

 last, a great quantity of fruit would come on to the 

 market in due course. Of course ground game must 

 be kept out with wire netting, and other trespassers 

 by a steel barbed wire or two at the top. Some of 

 Mr. Rivers' experimental plantations of bush, stand- 

 ard, and pyramidal trees are intercropped with bush 

 fruit or nursery stock, some — the oldest— do not 

 admit of this being done, and are bare of all other 

 crops. On a farm or allotment no ground would' be 

 under the trees, but there would be turf under the 

 standards where there were no bushes, and such 

 would be fed off by sheep, nothing larger ; or Straw- 

 berries might be grown, but no vegetables of coarse 

 growth which would rob the soil to the detriment of 

 the permanent crop — the trees. Where dwarf trees 

 of any form are grown there could be no feeding off 

 by sheep, but the grass, if any, would have to be mown. 

 Trees in Pots. — In looking through the many 

 houses splendid Pears and Apples were observed on 

 trees growing in 8-inch and 10-inch pots with a sur- 

 facing of manure. Pears and Apples were likewise 

 standing in large numbers in the open, their pots 

 partly sunk into the soil — these likewise bore mag- 

 nificent fruits. As examples of what may be done 

 in this way in a very small space we may mention 

 four Pear trees — General Todtleben, Triomphe de 

 Jodoigne, Nouvelle Eulvie, and Madame Andrei Leroy, 

 which would be standing on a paralellogram of 4 feet 

 X 4 feet. There were on these pyramid trees about 

 60 fruits worth, to the grower from id. to Gd. 

 each ; therefore, at the lesser sum they would be 

 worth in London, or any large town, £1. This 

 speaks well for the profits of fruit-growing when pro- 

 perly done. Another instance of this was a house 

 which had pot-Vines at tbe sides, but not much 

 foliage on the roof, and was partly filled in the centre 

 at the time of our visit with Peaches in pots. Prom 

 this house there had been gathered this year 4000 

 Peaches from several successional groups of trees, 

 besides Grapes from one hundred pot Vines. The 

 Peaches had all been bloomed in the house, then 

 placed out-of-doors when safe, and again transferred 

 to the house to fruit in succession. 



Pears and Apples were found in quantity, growing 

 in small pots — nice pyramidal stuff, well loaded with 

 large fruits, to keep which hanging on the trees as 

 long as was necessary for perfect ripening they were 

 slung each in its bag of coarse fish-netting. The 

 pots are partly plunged in the soil and heavily top- 

 dressed with manure in some cases ; in others some 

 special manure — Thomson's or Beeson's, probably 

 — was given occasionally. We saw some very fine 

 Pitmaston Duchess, Souvenir de Congres, Marie 

 Louise d'Uccle, Doyenne du Cornice, Beurre Baltet, 

 a nice fruit, ripening in a large span-house along 

 with late Peaches, Lady Palmerston, Sea Eagle, 

 Salway, Mr. Gladstone, and others. 



A very good method of growing cordon Pears was 

 observed on a southerly sloping trellis of laths 

 enclosed by a wall of boards secured to Oak posts. 

 This trellis was about 1 foot from the soil at the 

 front, and 2 feet at the rear. The trees, which are 

 planted on the outside, close to the boards, may 

 stand 2 feet apart, and are bent at an obtuse angle, 

 and made fast to the trellis. There are great advan- 

 tages obtained in this way ; the trees can be easily 

 protected from frost in the blooming period by 

 means of lights, which can be placed at about 

 8 inches above them. The fruit is fully exposed to 

 the sun, and it is impossible for the wind, however 

 strong, to blow it off. The score of trees would 

 yield on an average twelve fine Pears each, say forty 

 dishes. 



The varieties of the Apples in pots were Emperor 

 Alexander, Dumelow's Seedling, Cox's Orange, 

 Warner's King, very large, quite 5 inches in diameter ; 

 the scarlet Golden Pippin, a fruit that has a more juicy 

 flesh than the old Golden Pippin ; King of Tomkin's 

 County, very fine showy fruit in pots in the open ; Lady 

 Henniker, Grimes' (American) Golden Pippin. 



In one of the houses a pot-grown tree of a 

 late, showy, scarlet-fruited Cherry was noticed — 

 Tardive de Winkle. It is tender, fleshy, sweet, 

 large, and will hang till the end of October — a 

 great acquisition in sweet dessert Cherries, and 

 should in time run the Morello, with its tart smack, 

 out of the field. The general nursery stock, both out- 

 of-doors and under glass, was abundant and healthy. 

 Marechal Niel Rose is grown in large numbers, and 

 so well, that the stock is soon bought out. The 

 same holds goods of Vines in pots. Of fruiting 

 Vines, three houses are just now a splendid sight ; 

 these consist of Gros Maroc and Madresfield Court in 

 one division, Mrs. Pince and Gros Colmar in another, 

 Muscat of Alexandria in a third. The Vines, not- 

 withstanding the continuous heavy cropping — 50 lb. 

 at least to a Vine — show no indications of failing 

 vigour, the bunches and berries being as large and 

 as well coloured as in any previous year. Nothing 

 is done to the borders beyond forking them over 

 once a year, and affording them a dressing of some 

 artificial manure, and perhaps that little is not 

 necessary, the roots being down in the good deep 

 loam overlying the Greensand, the latter affording 

 egress to the surface-water, and also supplying 

 moisture at call to the upper crust. 



New or Noteworthy Plants. 



CYPRIPEDIUM CHELSEENSE X , n. hyb. 



" I have the pleasure of sending you herewith the 

 flower and leaf of one of my seedling Cypripediums 

 now blooming for the first time. As you will see, 

 it is intermediate between the parents, Cypripedium 

 Lowei and Cypripedium barbatum purpureum. Its 

 habit and style of growth favouring Cypripedium 

 Lowei, as also the flower-spike, which I have sent 

 you entire. The leaf is an old one, but the young 

 ones show somewhat the marmoration seen in those 

 of C. barbatum purpureum." 



With these very apt remarks Mr. W. Bull has sent 

 me a leaf, much resembling Cypripedium Lowei, 

 and a fine two-flowered peduncle. The plant appears 

 to be the inverted mule of Cypripedium calanthum, 

 a Sedenian work at Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons (1876). 



