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JOUENAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COITAGB GABDENEB. 



[ November M, 1870. 



water is the remedy commonly recommended, bat I observe 

 that the Bev. J. Wood (" Garden Friends and Foea ") says that 

 lime is by no means so effectual as the carbonate of ammonia. 

 He further urges the advantage of the ammonia as a manure. 

 Of the efficiency of this remedy, if the solution be strong, I 

 cannot doubt ; but I should be glad to know from any of your 

 readers who have actually made the experiment what is the 

 extreme strength which the roots of ordinary plants, say the 

 Strawberry, will bear. Would 2 ozs. to the gallon be excessive ? 

 I have tried carbonate of soda at this strength, but only to see 

 its effects on worms. It did not seem better than lima water. 

 — G. S. 



FRUIT TREES FOR SHALL GARDENS.— No. 2. 



As to the form of fruit trees for small gardens there can be 

 no two opinions. Standards may be all very well for orchards, 

 and where the cultivator does not set much value on his land, 

 or has no eye to an early profitable return. If he care not for 

 quality, and for planting for another generation, he will have 

 an orchard. He may have fruit in seven years that will, 

 perhaps, pay the rent of the ground, fruit that must be sold by 

 measure, for it is not of a qaality to have a value individually, 

 and which ii it is to be disposed of must be parted with at a 

 cheap rate. It is not of orchards, however, that I wish to j 

 write at present ; they are good in their place — for those who 

 have ground to spare and can afford to wait — but I may state 

 my couviction (undoubtedly a strange one for a gardener who 

 has planted and is planting orchards), that orchards are not 

 the most profitable and best means of growing fruit, quality as 

 well as quantity being taken into consideration. It is all very 

 well to look at an orchard in autumn when the trees are laden 

 with fruit, but no one takes into account the time the trees 

 were planted before any return was made, and it seldom ocours 

 to many that the crop is always at the mercy of a gale of wind. 

 There is much uncertainty from frosts destroying the blossom", 

 from the wind blowing off the fruit just when it is fit to gather; 

 or if not, the danger of one branch laden with fruit rubbing 

 against another causing much damaged fruit ; besides, the trees 

 are beyond easy control. 



For gardens of whatever size, great or small, tha peer's or 

 the peasant's, there can be no question as to the form of trees. 

 Standards, we know, usurp the whole of the ground in which 

 they are planted, and render not only the ground over which 

 their branches extend, but that for a distance beyond, wholly 

 unfit for the successful cultiv ition of anything else. In a garden 

 we expect something more than fruit trees, everything to stand 

 on its own footing, everything to be good of its kind, everything 

 to yield a good return for the ground devoted to it. I can 

 recollect passing my first year as master gardener in a place 

 where standard Apple, Pear, find Plum trees were at no very 

 great distance apart, and my having to grow bash fruit (often 

 tinder the standard tree.-) and vegetables in the spaces getting 

 a gleam of sua. There could be no excuse for retaining them, 

 as there was a capital orchard, and the walls were covered with 

 good and useful tree'. To ask the proprietor to clear out the 

 standard trees mould have been equivalent to asking him to cut 

 down the fine old Oaks in the park. He had his old notions. 

 It wa3 folly to advise dwarfs or espaliers; the former would 

 srrow quite as big, it was only a question of time, and the 

 espaliers would need to be so cu'-in that they would not bear. 

 Ha neither believed in root-pruning, nor in summer-pruning. 

 Is not this applicable to our farm and cottage gardens ? Are 

 they not as a rule orchards, not gardens ? Fruit there may 

 be from the forest-like trees, but what of the quality and of 

 the value of the ground for garden purposes? Large quantities 

 of some kinds of fruit are in some establishments only useful in 

 gratifying a claB3 who care not whence a thing thev like is 

 obtained if they get it, or such fruit is left to decay in the fruit- 

 room. In farm and cottage gardens this may not be the case. 

 The fruit may be disposed of as the owners think profitably. 



The objections I have to urge against standard trees in gar- 

 dens, and especially small gardens are — 1st, They take no too 

 much room. 2nd, Their shade, the drip from tbem, and the 

 roots, render the ground unfit for anything else. 3rd, Often a 

 larger quantity of one kind of fruit i» produced than is sufficient 

 to meet all the demands required. 4tb, There mn3t be a want 

 of variety which is always pleasing when good, as well as an 

 inferior quality of produce in eveiything, for standard trees 

 do not yield nearly so good fruit ns espaliers, bushes, and 

 pyramids. In theee days quantity is of no use unless com- 

 bined with quality. I might go further aud say standards are 



not profitable, or if they are, less so than pyramid and bosh 

 trees. 



For gardens I am convinced of the inutility of standard trees, 

 and in no case would I grow anything larger than a pyramid. 

 I may be thought peouliar in my views, but I say that in this 

 oountry pyramids of over 7 feet 6 inches, or, at the extreme, 

 8 feet, have their days numbered. Above that height they are 

 too large for gardens and shade the ground, and they have a 

 tendency to lean to one side, especially those on the Quince 

 stock, and the fruit on the upper part is liable to get damaged 

 by wind and the blossoms by frost if the situation is at all 

 exposed. In an exposed situation I consider bushes preferable 

 to pyramids, though there is no objection to pyramids of 7 to 

 8 feet high. 



Pyramids and bushes of Pears, Plums, Apples, and Cherries 

 are what I think most suitable for small gardens. Walks there 

 must be in every garden ; and on both sides of them I would 

 have in all cases a row of pyramid or bush fruit trees in kitchen 

 gardens, and even in the ornamental part of farmhouse gardens 

 I would introduce them as specimens, whether on grass or in 

 borders. Ou grass they would do well with a space of 4 feet 

 round each kept clear of grass, and for applying top-dressings 

 of rich compost so necessary for pyramid and bush fruit trees. 

 A row of Pears, Apples, Plums, and Cherries on both sides of 

 a main walk, planted at 9 feet apart, and standing in 1 feet 

 circles at G feet from the walk, would have a fiD6 effect — all 

 blossom in spring, and laden with delicious fruit in summer 

 and autumn. In a kitohen garden the trees need not be so far 

 apart: G feet would be ample, but not too far. Nor would I 

 stop there. In the place where the Box or other edging 

 was I would have a galvanised wire (No. 6) strained exactly 

 1 foot from the ground ; aud if I had an edging at all it would 

 be of tiles ; equally distant from the trees on the other side 

 I would have another wire strained. For training on those 

 wires I would plant double cordon Apple or Pear trees 12 feet 

 apart, so that each cordon would have 6 feet length of wire to 

 occupy. The cordons might be either Apples or Pears accord- 

 ing to the wishes of the occupier, but as Apples are the more 

 useful fruit I would prefer them. By thus disposing the borders 

 along tha sides of the walks and planting with pyramid and 

 bush fruit trees, there would be a sufficient supply for a family. 

 It is presumed the garden beyond this is sufficiently large to 

 afford space for a proper supply of vegetables. Ab a rule, the 

 space devoted to fruit will be about one-third that of a vegetable 

 and fruit garden combined. 



Of course in gentlemen's gardens the walls must be taken 

 into consideration, but taken altogether, the trees against walls, 

 and those in borders and in the quarters occupy about one- 

 third of the kitchen-garden ground. For farm and cottage 

 gardens, however, I consider borders on both' sides of the walks, 

 or, it may be, one walk would afford a sufficient supply of fruit ; 

 but if not, and there were more ground than was wanted for 

 vegetables, the part not required could ba planted with bush 

 and pyramid Apple. Pear, Plum, or Cherry trees at 6 feet apart 

 every way to bear fruit either for family use or for sale, for it 

 is only right that those occupying garden ground should make 

 it profitable to themselves, what is not required being sold. 



But who would advise planting bush and pyramid Apple, 

 Pear, Plum, and Cherry trees as a paying speculation? Every 

 one who has the scales of prejudice removed from his eyes, as 

 he will have if he plant an equal extent of ground with standard 

 trees, and with bushes and pyramids for comparison. It is 

 U3ual to compare the produce of a few bush and pyramid trees 

 but a few years old with those of standard orchard trees that 

 occupy th9 whole of the ground devoted to the bushes and 

 pyramids, and vegetables as well. Some have sn idea that a 

 small tree should bear as much as a giant, but take no aocount 

 of the ground occupied in each case, nor do they consider the 

 difference in the ages of the subjects. They expect a pyramid 

 or bush tree, requiring at the most 4 square yards, to give as 

 much fruit as a standard on from 36 to 64 square yards. 

 Nothing is expected from a standard fur the first two or three 

 years ; but a bush or pyramid is expected to do wonders the 

 first year, and, if it do not, those whose advice prompted its 

 planting suffer. 



The only satisfactory way to come to a conclusion is to plant 

 a piece of ground with standard trees, and an equal extent with 

 bushes or pyramids, and note the annual produce of each. 

 That is what I have done, and I advise others to r'o the same 

 if they wish to become acquainted with the most profitable 

 mode of growing fruit of superior quality. Let tlem prepare 

 an acre of ground for bush and pyramid fruit trees. It ought 



