October 10, 1878. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
271 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
Day | Day | Average s »,| Clock | Day’ 
of |_ of OCTOBER 10—16, 1878. | ature Sun’ | f Stns || Moon! (Moon's) Moon’s)|; tetore || cof 
Month) Week pee | Sa aure near Rises. | Sets Rises Sets Age. Sun. | Year. 
Day. |Night. Mean.| h. m.} h. m.|] h. m.| h. m]} Days. | m. 
10 TH T. A. Knight born, 1758. | 61.6 | 43.3 | 52.4 6 17 ie ws 4 35 Gy alt) || 14 12 58 | 283. 
11|F Sale of Nursery at Potter’s Bar. 61.7 | 424 | 521 | 6 19] 5 15] 4 48] 6 28 @ 13 14 | 284 
12 s 69.2 | 41.4 | 50.3 6 21 5 12 6 4 i EY) 16 13° 29 | 285 
13 Sun | 17 SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. | 60.7 | 41.8 51.2 6 22 5 10 5 24 8 50 17 13 43 | 286 
14 M Fire Insurance must be paid. 59.9 | 40.5 | 50.2 6 24 5.8 5 51/10 2 18 13 57 | 287 
15 TU Royal Horticultural Society—Fruit and Floral Com-| 59.0 | 40.5 | 49.8 6 26 5.6 6 27/11 10 19 14 11 |} 288 
16 WwW Sale of Bulbs at Stevens’s Rooms. [ mittees at 11 ere 59.0 | 40.1 | 49.5 6 27 5. 4 7 16 Oall 20 14 23 | 289 | 
| 
From observations taken near London during forty-three years, the’average day temperature of the week is 60.6°; and its night temperature 
PLEASURES OF HARDY FRUIT CULTURE. 
2 OST is but saying again what I have often said 
«x —‘‘Increase your knowledge you increase 
your pleasure.” But why do we often say the 
same things ? why say them over and over 
again ? Simply because we feel their truth. 
The belief in the mind, or the heart, prompts 
the tongue to speak ; we must speak, we can- 
i nothelp it. Life must be very dreary to one who 
has never exerted his mental powers, to one 
who has never cared to know many things. I grant 
that a man often succeeds in his calling who knows 
that, and that only. I knew a blacksmith so devoted 
to his trade that he went to the Great Exhibition of 1851 
and made straight for the place where different kinds of 
horseshoes were to be seen, and having carefully examined | 
them returned home contented, having only given a passing 
glance to other things. He was a very good blacksmith, 
but he would have been none the worse if he had learnt to 
appreciate other things besides horses’ shoes. Tree, bird, 
flower, all contribute to our pleasure in proportion to our 
understanding them. Ido not wish to be egotistical, and 
merely mention things that others may be benefited, but 
the plan I have followed for many years of always having 
something on hand which I am mastering in its details has 
added much to my happiness, and has often taken away 
that monotonousness which I have known people say is apt 
to be felt in the country. I would recommend people, in. 
the country especially, to have on hand, as I generally 
have, two sources of interest at the same time—one for out- 
doors, another for indoors. Winter is coming, long even- 
ings will soon be ours; take up, then, some subject which 
during those long evenings you determine to fathom, or 
some series of writers of the same period ; this I have often 
done and with profit. Or pursue indoors the literary part 
of a subject, while outdoors in the summer you carry on 
the practical part. Books on gardening, or some branch of 
it, for indoor study. I saw it noticed lately that had Peter 
Cunningham lived in the country he would have been a 
Gilbert White, and produced a history like that of Selborne ; 
or had Gilbert White lived in town he would have written 
a “ Handbook of London.” 
But to come to my immediate subject—that of the plea- 
sure of cultivating hardy fruits. We cannot all grow 
Orchids, we cannot all grow high-class hothouse plants, we 
cannot all grow (how I wish I could) hothouse Grapes, we 
cannot all manage—for as an eccentric old friend of mine 
used to say, “the Chancellor of the Exchequer forbids ”—to 
gaze up at our own Muscats and Lady Downe’s, or even 
Black Hamburghs ; but we all with even a small garden 
can manage to grow hardy fruits. 
_ As to the form in which to have the trees. JI am speak- 
ing as an amateur, I would most decidedly say let them be 
pyramids, for these reasons—they are far prettier, they 
take up less room, and are so manageable ; besides the fruit 
is not blown down. Winds must be high indeed to catch 
more than the mere top of a pyramid. Other forms may 
be used at times; thus an espalier tums a corner nicely, 
NO. 915.—Vor.. XXXV., NEW SERIES. 
and may be planted so as to screen from view a compost or 
manure heap, doing the duty of a Privet hedge with much 
more profit. A standard Pear tree comes in well to hide a 
high building or fill up a corner where nothing is wanted 
to grow. In such places a graceful, and even at times a 
majestic, Pear tree looks admirable. Also [ would not 
object to a Scarlet Siberian Crab standard on a lawn, where 
also in some old-fashioned gardens may be seen one in one 
corner and another in another, a Quince and a Medlar ; and 
T would say, Why not? Of course if you have an orchard 
on grass the standard is the form. Then if you have walls 
make use of every foot ; Plums are best there, and Cherries 
too, besides the regular wall fruit. Half-standards suit well 
in some gardens, but if you go in for the pleasure of the 
thing, and some profit too, take to pyramids ; you have 
variety of foliage and growth readily seen level with your 
eyes—some have large leaves, some smaller, some upright 
growths, some diffused. My eyes fall with pleasure upon 
this great variety. There standing before me is a Soldat 
Esperen Pear which grows, pillar-like, straight up, and I 
seldom pass it without thinking of Mrs. Browning’s line— 
“ The Cypress stood up like a church,” 
and much like it is this Pear tree. Then next is a great pet 
of mine—Beuwrré Hardy, with its clear sea-green leaves, 
each leaf curved back, and this tree also grows upright, 
but diverse, though somewhat like its neighbour. Then 
there is big burly Beurré Diel, and large strong-growing 
Beurré d’Amanlis. Contrasting well with this stands grace- 
ful, delicate, small-leaved Winter Nelis, always on a shiver, 
Abele-like. That valuable winter Pear Bergamotte Esperen 
has another kind of upright growth ; while Summer Doy- 
enné, Beurré Giffard, and Madame Treyve spread wide with 
good dark foliage ; while Seckle grows so round that it 
reminds me of a pegtop Beech. 
Nor are Apple pyramids less different in ways of grow- 
ing. Lord Suffield, delicate-shaped ; Duchess of Olden- 
burgh, with almost red wood for its branches ; Irish Peach, 
upright and regular in throwing out its arms ; though none 
grows so accurately in this respect as Cox’s Orange Pippin, 
which with the utmost regularity on each side of its upright 
stem sends out its miniature limbs, so that even a non- 
pomologist has paused and said, ‘‘ How regularly that little 
tree grows!” Summer Golden Pippin, again, grows plea- 
santly to the eye; while New Hawthornden, with large, . 
grand, dark leaves and wood, is most distinct and orna- 
mental. Dumelow’s Seedling, that best of winter cooking 
Apples, grows very regularly and rarely crosses its branches 
or incommodes itself with too much wood, but firm, long, 
lower branches to its top makes naturally a well-arranged. 
and pleasing tree, one easily recognised by the grey specks 
on its bark. There are other trees that do not certainly 
please the eye nearly so much, and some seem over-slender 
for their fruit. Quite the contrary, however, to this are 
those fine strong-growing, sturdy, and upright, yet trusty, | 
pyramidal Apple trees Cellini and Ecklinville. This in- 
dividuality of fruit trees, seen to such advantage when hey 
are grown as pyramids, is to my mind hoth interesting and 
pleasing, and gives distinctness to sorts, so much so that 
sometimes I can fancy I am looking at different kinds of 
NO, 1567—VOL. LX., OLD SERIES. 
