December 28, 1871. ] 



JOUBNAL OF H0BTIC0LTUE3 AND COTXAGE GARDENER. 



501 









WEEKLY 



CAL 



ENDAR, 















Day 



Day 







Average Terapera- 



Rain in 



Snn 



Sun 



Moon 



Moon 



Moon's 



Clock 

 before 

 Sun. 



Day 



oi 



Year. 



Month 



Week. 



DEC. 23— JAN. 3, 1873. 





tnre near London. 



43 years. 



Eises. 



Sets. 



rases. 



Sets. 



Age. 











Day. 



Niirht. 



Mean. 



Davs. 



m. h. 



tn. h. 



m. b. 



m. h. 



Days. 



ra. s. 





2S 



Th 







42.8 



29.5 



36.0 



13 



9af8 ; 5oaf3 



17af5 



2Saf 9 



16 



1 41 



362 



29 

 80 



F 



S 



Length of Sight 16h. 13m. 





43.9 

 444 



33.0 

 31.7 



SS.5 

 38.1 



20 

 17 



9 8 

 9 8 



56 3 



57 3 



21 6 

 28 7 



7 10 

 31 10 



17 

 18 



2 11 

 2 40 



363 

 354 



31 



Son 



1 Srm-nAT attf.b Cttrtstitas. 





43.9 



32.4 



38.2 



15 



9 8 



58 3 



88 8 



68 10 



19 



3 9 



365 



1 



M 



Xr.w Yrar's Dav. 





43.0 



30.B 



36.6 



12 



8 8 



D 4 



50 9 



6 4 



20 



3 37 





2 



To 







41.9 



2<.9 



85.4 



17 



8 8 



1 4 



1 11 



50 4 



21 



4 5 





8 



W 







42.6 



SCO 



86.3 



19 



8 8 



2 4 



mom. 



34 5 



c 



4 SB 



3 



From observations taken near London dnrins Jorty-tbree years, the average day temperature of the week ia 43.0 



', and its night 



tem- 



peratnre 80 8'. The greatest heat wa3 58'^ on 



the 28th, 1855 ; and the lowest cold 2° below zero, on the 2nd, 18b7. 



The greatest fau oi | 



rain was 0.62 inch. 









1 



SLIALL FARMS— HOW THEY CAN BE MADE 



TO ANSWER.— No. 4. 



By JSev. 'Wiuilui Lea, Vicar of St. Feter's, Droitimch, and 



Hon. Canon of Worcester'. 



PPLES, PEARS, AND CHERRIES.— I put 



tliese three favoimte fruits together, because 

 if thej are planted on common orchard stoclis 

 it is at least fifteen years before they become 

 profitable ; so, if they are planted on a fruit 

 fai-m, it should be at the expense of the land- 

 lord and not of the tenant. But Apples on 

 the English Pai-adise stock, and Pears on the 

 Quince, and Cherries on the Mahaleb, will 

 come much eai-lier into bearing, and will, if 

 the faim is within reach of a good market, prove a profit- 

 able crop. We •niU, therefore, dismiss the consideration of 

 orchard stocks, and see what may be done with xVpples on 

 the Paradise stock. 



If Apples are planted in this form it should be as 

 " bushes," and the pruning should be of the simplest Hnd, 

 just shortening shoots which are too rampant, and cutting 

 out those which cross. Treated in this fashion, the tree 

 at six years old may produce, say, one-third of a pot of 

 fruit, the price of which wfll vary from 2s. Gd. in a good 

 season to 6s. or 7s. in a bad one. I do not think, therefore, 

 that the Apple, as a rule, will be so profitable a crop as the 

 Plum ; but if, instead of growing the common sorts, a man 

 will go-in for the choicer varieties of large or table fruit, 

 such as would be appreciated in Covent Garden, and could 

 be sold by the dozen, he would obtain a better return. 

 From my own experience I should say that the surest way 

 of obtaining fine fruit is to grow Apples on the French 

 system of single or double cordons. This is easily done, 

 and at a very slight expense ; you only want a training 

 ground and a line of wires to fasten your trees to when 

 they are trained. The way to set about it is this — First 

 put up two posts in any part of your ground which is 

 convenient, and nail a common deal batten to them at 

 15 or 18 inches from the ground. This is your training 

 ground. Then pm-chase some " maidens " on English 

 Paradise stocks, and bend them into shape by tying them 

 down to the batten ; in one season they will acquire the 

 proper form, and be fit to transplant to your wire, along 

 which they are to make a permanent cordon. 



The French grow two varieties of cordon, the single and 

 the double. In the single cordon the trees are planted 

 about 9 feet apart, and when the head of the shoot of one 

 reaches the tail of the next, it is grafted into it, so that the 

 sap is passed on from one to another throughout the whole 

 line. The theory is that a vigorous grower should be 

 planted next to a weaklier one, and thus the want of 

 stamina of the one replenished from the redundancy of the 

 other; but I cannot say how this will answer from my 

 own experience, as my trees have not yet caught each 

 other. All I can say is that cordons form a very pretty 

 edging, and that they produce finer fi-uit - than can be 

 obtained in any other manner, both Apples and Peai's. Of 

 the two I think Apples succeed better 1h%i Pears, and if 

 No. 661.— Vot. XXI., Kew Series. 



Pears are planted they should be higher from the ground 

 than Apples, say 20 instead of 12 or 15 inches, as the blossom 

 is earlier, and more liable to be cut ofi: by the frost. I do 

 not recommend this mode of growing fruit, except_ where 

 fine fruit in small quantities is desired; as I intimated 

 above, it is for the London market and not for the Black 

 Country. In the first, such fr-uit is sold by the dozen, in 

 the latter by the pot. 



Such varieties as the White Transparent, CalviUe 

 Blanche, Cox's Pomona, Ecklinville Seedling, OsHn, 

 Irish Peach, Kerry Pippin, Brabant Bellefleur, and the 

 Reinette du Canada answer well as cordons, and_ produce 

 enormous fr-uit, but of com'se the number is limited, and 

 a dozen or a dozen and a half are quite as many as one 

 cordon caii do justice to. This will settle the question 

 where quantity and not quality is desired. If grown as 

 bushes the following sorts may be added to those which 

 are named above :— Cox's Orange Pippin, the best of dessert 

 Apples ; the Joaneting, Hawthornden, Duchess of Olden- 

 burg, Emperor Alexander, Small's Admirable, Blenheim 

 Orange, CeUini, Wick Pearmain, Dumelow's Seedling, 

 Brabant Bellefleur, and Lord Suffield, which from coming 

 in early is always in demand, and last, but not least in 

 value, where it wUl gi-ow, the Sturmer Pippin, which will 

 keep till Apples come in again, if this be considered an ad- 

 vantage ; add to these, if the fruit is intended for the mai'kets 

 of the North, anything that shines or has a red cheek. 



In the same way in growing Pears, your choice of sorts 

 must depend on the market for which they are intended. 

 If for Covent Garden Market, fine fruit which will come 

 in between late Grapes and early Strawberries from De- 

 cember to Easter, will be the most profitable to grow ; if 

 for the north, the earliest you can get— the quality is 

 immaterial, provided it is called a Pear. 



On one occasion I happened to be in London, and 

 having a morning to spare I went to Covent Garden, and 

 amused myself by looking at the fruit and chatting with 

 the salesmen, who were willing enough to give me infoiTna- 

 tion when they found I knew something of their subject. 

 From what they told me I discovered that there are certain 

 stock varieties which usage has made fashionable in the 

 market, and which their West-end customers demand ; and 

 that many of the best Pears are not known there by name. 

 To my inquii-ies, " What they thought of the Josephine de 

 Malines or the Doyenne du Cornice?" I was told by several, 

 " We never heard of them." It was the same with the 

 Beurre Superfin, Fondante d'Automne, Winter Nelis, Ber- 

 gamotte Esperen, and other first-class vai-ieties. Pears, 

 as they know them, come in in the following rotation :— Bon 

 Chretien, Louise Bonne of Jersey, Bern-re Diel, Duchesse 

 d'Angouleme, Marie Louise, Chaumontel fr-om Jersey. 

 Glou°Morceau of which there were then (November) splen- 

 did specunens from France, Vicar of Winkfield imder the 

 name of the " Curate," Easter Beun-e, and Beurre de Ranee. 

 These later sorts carry them on till the hothouse produce 

 begins, and on this account I should imagine that they 

 would be the most profitable to grow. 



I hardly know how far to recommend the Pear as a 

 staple for a small fr-uit farm : the fr-uit of the later sorts 



No. 1213.— Vol. XL VI., O1.D Seeies 



