December li, 1871. ] 



JOUBNAIi OF HOETICULTUEB AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



461 







WEEKLY 



CALENDAR. 















Day 



Day 





Average Tempera- 



Eain in 



San 



Sml 



Moon 



Moon 



Moon's 



Clock 



Day 



Month 



Week. 



DECEMBER 14—20, 1871. 



ture near London. 



43 years. 



Rises. 



Sets. 



Rises. 



Sets. 



Age. 



Sun. 



Year. 









Day. 



NiRht. 



Mean. 



Days. 



m. h. 



m. b. 



m. b. 



m. h. 



Days. 



m. a. 





U 



Th 





46.9 



34.3 



40.6 



21 



lafS 



49af3 



37afl0 



19 af 6 



2 



5 14 



348 



15 



P 





47.0 



83.6 



40.3 



19 



2 8 



49 3 



20 11 



41 7 



3 



4 45 



349 



16 



S 



Cambridge Michaelmas Term ends. 



46-5 



32.9 



39.7 



15 



8 8 



49 3 



54 11 



5 9 



4 



4 16 



350 



17 



Son 



3 Sunday in Advent. 



45.9 



34.0 



89.9 



20 



4 8 



49 3 



after. 



25 10 



5 



3 46 



351 



18 



M 



Oxford Michaelmas Term ends. 



45.8 



33.7 



39.7 



20 



5 8 



60 3 



37 



43 11 



( 



3 17 



353 



19 



Tn 



Twilight ends 6.57 p.m. 



45.4 



32.5 



39.5 



16 



5 8 



60 3 



53 



morn. 



7 



2 47 



853 



20 



W 





44.1 



83.6 



38.9 



16 



6 8 



60 3 



8 1 



66 



8 



2 17 



364 



From observations taken near London during forty- 



hree years, the average day temperature of the week ig 45.9 



', and itE 



night tem- 



peratm-e 33,5°. The greatest heat was 59', on the 15th, 1868 ; and the lowest cold 7°, on the 16th, 1853. The greatest faU 



of rain was 



0.87 inch. 









SMALL FARMS— HOW THEY CAN BE MADE 



TO ANSWER.— No. 3. 



S.I/ JSev. William Lea, Vicar of St. Peter's, Droitwieh, and 



Hon. Qanon of Worcester. 



LUMS.^-We wSl now pass on to tlie larger 

 kinds of fruits, fi'om buslies to trees, suoli as 

 Plums, Apples, Pears, and Cherries, and I 

 put Plums first of all ia my list, because 

 they produce a much earlier return than the 

 others ; indeed, so much so that it would pay 

 a tenant to plant them on a fourteen-years 

 lease, whereas the others if planted on the 

 usual orchard stocks, are a landlord's im- 

 provement, and in most cases are planted for 

 the benefit of the next generation. The Apple, Pear, and 

 Cherry, on the usual orchard permanent stocks, do not 

 become sensibly profitable tiU they are twelve or fifteen 

 years old ; whereas the Plum will produce a good return after 

 six or seven years, and some sorts even earlier than tliis. 



The most profitable way of planting Plums will be to 

 put them ill together with Ciuxants or Gooseberries at 

 intervals of 24 feet, wluch will take seventy-five trees to 

 the acre, or even at intervals of 12 feet, which wiU take 

 300 trees to the acre. When the Gooseberries or Currants 

 are wearing- out, which will be in fifteen or twenty years, 

 the Plums will have covered the ground, and will bring 

 an ample profit. I find that trees of the Pershore Egg 

 Plum, which I planted in 1865, have this year produced on 

 the average 30 lbs. weight of fruit each, which, at the rate 

 of 5s. per pot of 90 lbs., is a return of Is. 8d. each tree. The 

 mention of tliis pot reminds me that in the midland coun- 

 ties aU. fruits and vegetables are sold wholesale by the 

 " pot," as it is called. A pot is an oblong basket with a 

 handle at each end, and without a lid. All the pols have 

 these points in common, and beiug in such universal use, 

 one would have supposed that they would have a still more 

 important point in common — I mean a fixed and definite 

 capacity ; but this is not the case, there are pots and pots. 

 This was one of the first lessons I learnt in farming ; 

 on going to buy some pots I was asked by the maker 

 whether I wanted buyers' pots or sellers' pots, and on 

 inquiring the difference, I was informed that buj'ers' pots 

 were larger pots, and sellers' pots smaller pots, and that 

 there was a difference of nearly a peck, or one-fifth, between 

 them ; and the different capacities of pots are so well 

 known, that a remedy has been invented which is almost 

 as bad as the disease. A certain conventional weight is 

 required for a pot of every variety of fruit or vegetable ; 

 and if these weights were the same in different districts, 

 there would only be the trouble of keeping the different 

 weights in one's head. But this is not the case — the 

 weights vary in diflerent parts just as much as pots do; a 

 pot of Potatoes is 95 lbs. in one place, while twenty miles 

 away it is only 80 lbs. A pot of Plums varies even more 

 than this — in one part it is 90 lbs,, in another 72 lbs. The 

 true remedy would be to buy and sell everything by weight, 

 irrespective of these fictitious measures, which vary in every 

 district. So much for pots. The question we have to 

 No. 659.— Vol. XXL, New Sebies. 



consider is, What varieties of Plum will fill them soonest, 

 and bring the best return to the planter ? 



Now, this question will be answered differently in 

 different districts. In some it will be the Prime Damson, 

 in others some other variety which has proved itself most 

 congenial to the soil ; but wherever the soil is strong and 

 retentive the Pershore Egg Plum should form a consider- 

 able portion of every plantation. It is the hardiest of all 

 Plums, the surest cropper, and the wood is tough, and the 

 branches will bear an enormous weight of frmt without 

 breaking. It is said to be a short-lived tree ; but I know 

 trees in full vigour which have been planted at least a 

 quarter of -a, century. It brings a lower price than other 

 Plums, but I think, in the long run, it will pay better than 

 any other on the average. In fact Plums for market pur- 

 poses may be divided into two classes — yellow or Egg 

 Plums and coloured Plums ; the latter in most years are 

 worth nearly double the price of the former. Among 

 coloured Plums the best are the Victoria, the Prince 

 Englebert, Pond's Seedling, the Black Diamond, Belgian 

 Purple, Kirke's Plum, Cox's Emperor, commonly called 

 Jemmy Moor, Prince of Wales, Cluster Damson, Mitchel- 

 son's Damson, and the Belle de Louvain. The Victoria is 

 a bright, large, pink Plum, an enormous cropper, always 

 in demand, good for eating or cooking, still better, I am 

 told, for bottling for use in the spring, but it has one most 

 serious drawback — the wood is extremely brittle, and my 

 trees break every year under the weight of fruit. This, 

 perhaps, may be in part owing to their being what is 

 technically termed " standards for orchards," and if I were 

 to begin again I would have nothing but "half- standards" 

 grafted about 3* feet from the ground, and then I should 

 prune back till the lower branches were strong enough to 

 support the fruit. But notwithstanding this disadvantage, 

 the Victoria should have a place in every plantation for 

 its beauty and productiveness. I once saw long lines of 

 this Plum alternating with Pond's SeedUng ; they were 

 both ripe, and as the sun shone on their large pink fruit 

 which hung the size of eggs from the boughs, I thought 

 I never saw a more beautiiul sight. The old Greek sailors 

 never imagined anything finer in the gardens of the 

 Hesperides. 



Pond's Seedling has the reputation of being an uncer- 

 tain cropper, but with me it always bears freely, and 

 produces finer fruit than any of the thirty sorts I have 

 in my plantation ; its wood, too, is tough, and will bear a 

 large crop without breaking. Prince Englebert is an. 

 excellent black Plum, and an abundant cropper. The 

 Black Diamond possesses the last of these qualifications, 

 but after all it is a monstrous abomination. Rivers's 

 Early Prolific is in some places a profitable variety, and 

 being the first in the market usually realises a high price 

 to the grower, but I cannot speak much of it myself, as I 

 have been unfortunate in my trees.- The nurseryman from 

 whom I bought them sent them on what I believe to be 

 Almond stocks, and the result is that they have not made 

 any growth in the six years, and I am now about to root 

 them up and burn them. 



This and other like experiences in buying trees Iea,d 



No. 1211.— Vol. XLVI., Old Sei.ies. 



