Octobeb 20, 1888.1 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



443 



perfect condition and the weather favourable ; but so 

 important is getting the trees into the grouud when 

 it is fairly warm atid dry, that I would rather defer 

 planting until April than risk placing the roots in a 

 pasty medium. Trees of home growth, that is, from 

 one's own nursery, which every fruit grower should 

 have, may be planted much earlier than others 

 brought in direct from a distance. All trees should 

 be carefully divested of faulty or injured roots by a 

 clean cut with a sharp knife ; they should never be 

 allowed to become dry, and each root and fibre 

 should be spread out in a horizontal position, lightly 

 covered, and watered home. 



In the arrangement of trees, the rows, if con- 

 venient, should run from north to south, or north- 

 east to south-west, as three out of the four sides then 

 receive an equal share of sun and light. The old 

 fault of plauting them too close should be carefully 

 guarded against, as good fruit cannot be expected 

 when the heads grow into each other and the roots 

 are constantly shaded. Standards of upright-growing 

 varieties may be placed 30 feet apart each way, 

 whilst 40 feet will not be found too much for 

 spreading trees like Flanders Pippin and Blenheim 

 Orange. Trees, again, of one variety, or a similar 

 habit of growth, and which ripen their fruit at 

 the same time, should be kept together, or .in rows, 

 alternating with others of a spreading or upright 

 character. By observing this rule at the outset 

 the general and orderly appearance of the nursery 

 will be greatly improved, and much time and 

 labour will be saved when gathering the fruit. The 

 same rule applies also to pyramids and bushes 

 which, by the way, should have plenty of room for 

 extension in every direction, as no extensive planter 

 can afford to prune close home upon villa garden 

 principles, especially when the best of the fruit is 

 cut away by the process. Thinning the shoots and 

 branches annually of course is necessary, but bevond 

 this and maintaining the balance by tipping a gross 

 shout, I should let each tree go. The distance apait 

 will depend upon the kind of stock, as trees on the 

 French Paradise may be grown for years at distances 

 of 4 to 6 feet apart each way. On the English 

 Paradise or Doucin, which I like best, they grow 

 stronger ; consequently more room is required. 

 Twelve feet from row to row, and G feet from tree to 

 tree, will give them room for a long time, but 

 eventually it may be necessary to transplant every 

 alternate tree, when those left will stand equidistant, 

 viz., 12 feet from stem to stem. Some I know plant 

 much closer, but when it is borne in mind that a 

 well-developed head turns off not only more, but 

 better fruit than a small one, abundance of room is 

 a decided advantage. Moreover, plenty of space 

 favours a spreading growth, which keeps the heads 

 near the ground, safe from wind and easy of access 

 for pruning, manipulating, and gathering. When 

 standards are planted they should be well secured to 

 the stakes previously driven, but in a way that will 

 allow them to settle with the subsiding soil, other- 

 wise the roots will drag and strangle. If on pasture 

 land, they should be well protected from sheep and 

 cattle, and the orchard itself must be fenced and 

 wired round to keep out hares and rabbits. 



Varieties. — The only point I must now venture to 

 touch upon is the selection of varieties for special 

 soils, situations and purposes. A few years ago we 

 planted very early sorts for coming in before the 

 American importations, but this is now over, as the 

 quick run, and summers hotter than our own com- 

 bined, enable our friends to be abreast of us at the 

 beginning, as for a long time they have been at the 

 end of the season. Our only way out of this dilemma, 

 as I have before observed, is high cultivation. We 

 have a climate which ripens fruit crisp, tender, and 

 juicy, not quite so highly coloured, perhaps, but in 

 my opinion superior to the general run of American. 

 We have the soil which, thanks to yearly tenancies, 

 nobody cares to till ; and we have the ability. All 

 we want is quality, then it matters little whether we 

 market early or late, always provided we confine 

 ourselves to a few of the best sorts which do well in 

 the locality. This hackneyed phrase for a long time 



puzzled would-be growers, who said, " Where must 

 we look for anything better than a Suffield or 

 a Blenheim ? " Well, I am not sure that any- 

 one requires anything better, but if they do, 

 they must just look into any of the great well- 

 known nurseries about the end of September, and 

 there they will find thousands of trees of all the 

 leading kinds carrying fruit of the highest quality. 

 Some of these on dwarfing stocks — just the thing for 

 the garden or home nursery — will be loaded with 

 large, bright fruit, of which at the present time we 

 ought to have 100,000 tons ready for storing. They 

 will find also standards on free stocks specially pre- 

 pared for planting on pasture and arable land. From 

 these they may select scores or hundreds of trees of 

 one sort, and so on of another, but on no account 

 must they select one or two trees each of a hundred 

 sorts, as this plurality is a great drawback to com- 

 mercial culture. Very early sorts generally go direct 

 from trees to the market ; medium and late sorts 

 must be stored in dark, cool fruit-rooms or dry 

 cellars, and this accommodation, or the want of it, 

 must be the guide in making a selection. 



Gathering, storing, and marketing hitherto in the 

 Western Counties has not received proper attention ; 

 but a great improvement is now taking place, and 

 the day, I hope, is not far distant when ruthless 

 shaking the boughs will be looked npon as a bar- 

 barous custom of the past. Apples worth growing 

 are worth hand-pinking, and when hand-picked they 

 are worth sizing — that is, dividing into two classes 

 before they are stored or sent to market. The best 

 only should be sent away ; seconds may be retained 

 for home use, or consumption in the neighbourhood. 

 There should be no mixing of sorts, or good and bad 

 together, but one uniform quality should prevail. 

 Buyers in this part of the country still stick to their 

 pots. I do not mean earthenware, but wicker, which 

 hold from 5 to 7 pecks each ; but invariably they 

 sell by weight, and this, I think, is the fairest way, 

 as anyone can compute the value of a ton of Apples. 

 Before Apples are hand-picked for storing they should 

 be ripe, that is to say, the kernels should be brown 

 and somewhat loose in their cells. The fruit, more- 

 over, should be perfectly dry and free from spot or 

 blemish, as one black sheep soon demoralises the 

 flock. Once put away the less they are turned or 

 handled the better, especially when sweiting or 

 during frosty weather. 



If the store-room is fitted with lath shelves, the 

 choice varieties should be placed one, or at most two 

 layers, thick, but late sorts grown in great quantities 

 may be laid upon dry floors in greater bulk. They 

 may be stored also in dry flour-barrels, which should be 

 labelled and put away in a low even temperature for 

 the winter. Good aristocratic store-rooms are rather 

 expensive ; but a cutting driven into a dry bank and 

 covered with thatch, with double doors at one end, 

 will make a store equal to the best and most elabor- 

 ate in the kingdom. Resinous wood should never be 

 used in the manufacture of shelves ; neither should 

 hay or straw be admitted within the walls ; as all these 

 materials impart a disagreeable flavour. Dry Fern, 

 on the other hand, may be used for covering pur- 

 poses, but very little of this will suffice where frost, 

 and more especially heat-proof, stores are properly 

 constructed. 



APPLE AND PEAR GROAVING IX 

 JERSEY. 



By CHARLES B. SAUNDERS. 



The island of Jersey, being so noted for the growth 

 and cultivation of fine fruit, especially Apples and 

 Pears, I venture to offer a few remarks upon the 

 modes of culture and the varieties cultivated, think- 

 ing they might be acceptable to the committee, and 

 also to the general body of horticulturists interested 

 in the production of these health-giving and palate- 

 pleasing fruits. 



Jersey being the most southerly of the group of 

 islands in the Bay of St. Michael's, and the slope of 

 the land being from north to south-west, enjoys a 

 very favourable climate ; the general moisture, 

 owing to its position and the saline air, which almost 



always may be felt blowing over its surface, renders 

 it peculiarly adapted to the growth of Pears. The 

 soil is a good loam upon a substratum of clay 

 retentive of moisture, which suits the Quince stock, 

 upon which most of the Pear trees are budded or 

 grafted. There are localities along the coast of 

 which the soil is much mixed with sand, owing to 

 the continuous drift in stormy weather, whilst some 

 parts of the western side of the island are so much 

 exposed to the Atlantic Ocean as to be entirely 

 unfit for fruit culture, and scarcely worth cultivating, 

 the cereals and root crops growing upon them being 

 very often subject to serious injury from the force 

 of the westerly gales. Now it is easy to understand 

 why the most protected and best sheltered situations 

 are selected for the growth of the finest and best 

 kinds of frnit. Apples are grown on the higher and 

 drier parts of the island, where the land is stiff 

 enough and the drainage good : hence the orchards, 

 where the more ordinary kinds are grown for the 

 manufacture of cider and general consumption, are 

 generally surrounded by hedgerows from 5 to 8 feet 

 high, and planted with Elm and other descriptions 

 of forest trees. The Apple trees in these orchards 

 are generally grafted 6 feet from the ground, and 

 have spreading circular heads, which are perfectly 

 beautiful when in bloom. Very many of us can 

 recollect when theWeigelas of sorts were first intro- 

 duced, that their great recommendation was that they 

 were as " beautiful as Apple blossoms." Were not 

 Apple blossoms beautiful before then ? 



These orchard trees, which make such a beautiful 

 display of flowers and produce in favourable seasons 

 such an abundance of fruit, are much neglected, and 

 allowed to grow in a confused mass of branches. 

 To scientific horticulturists it seems a pity that, 

 where Nature does so much, man sluuld do so little 

 in the way of pruning, so as to give the trees 

 a more regular form and better appearance. You 

 will, I think, agree with me that judicious 

 pruning — i.e., removing weak and superfluous 

 branches — would have the good effects of improved 

 appearance, more healthy growth, and finer fruit. 

 The general character of the growth is so vigorous 

 as to render it unnecessary to prune the extremities 

 of the shoots, except for the sake of shaping the 

 trees and balancing the heads, but " thinning out " is 

 the style of pruning requisite. 



The finer descriptions of Apple fruit are grown in 

 gardens sometimes against the walls, on espaliers, or 

 on the long cordon system. The dwarf cordon is 

 not much practised, nor is it desirable, inasmuch 

 as the growth, in spite of the Paradise stock upon 

 which the trees are usually worked, becomes so 

 strong that it requires constant cutting back to 

 keep it within the desired limits, and this constant 

 repression of growth is not conducive to fructification. 



The finest Kibston Pippin Apples are grown upon 

 south walls in sheltered gardens, trained upon the fan 

 system — the strong radiating shoots being selected 

 to form the frame of the trees, and the lateral and 

 weaker branches being pinched and pruned oft', so as 

 to get fruit spurs to form. It is an excellent system, 

 barring the disadvantage of the early maturity of the 

 fruit. Very few other sorts are thought worthy of 

 wall culture. The dwarf bush, the open standards, 

 the rider or tall standard trees are all acceptable 

 forms of garden trees, where the space is sufficient ; 

 and such varieties as Early Stibberd, Red Astrachan, 

 Lord Suffield, Hawthornden, Red Quarrenden, 

 Hooper's Seedling, Downton King, Golden and 

 Walton Pippins, Grand Alexander, Cox's Po- 

 mona, and Orange Pippin, 'Court of Wick 

 Pippin, English and Dutch Codlins, &c, are 

 grown freely on Paradise as well as other stock, and 

 take but little space. It is not unusual to see crops 

 of fruit considerably above the weight of the trees 

 producing them. Planting Paradise stock Apple 

 trees in rows 6 feet apart, and the trees at o" feet 

 apart in the rows, suggests a system of culture which 

 might be made remunerative, and were it not for the 

 constant changing of tenants from one piece of land to 

 another, might be advantageously practised. It is 



(For continuation, see p. 448). 



