292 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 11, 1864. 



Beurre Giffard, August ; Beurre Goubault, September ; 

 Doyenne Boussoch, October ; Jargonelle, August ; Conseiller 

 de la Cour, November ; Dr. Trousseau, December ; Zephirin 

 Gregoire, Januai-y; Nouveau Poiteau, November; Jalousie 

 de Fontenay, August; Catillac (for baking), December; 

 Leon le Clerc de Laval (for baking), March. 



"Apples as Bushes for Market Gardens. — Our market gar- 

 deners, as a rule, are very deficient in their knowledge of 

 fruit-tree culture, and they have much to learn. The nsual 

 practice -with them is to plant standard or half-standard 

 trees in rows, some 20 or 30 feet apart, and between them 

 Gooseberry and Currant trees. The ground is dug between 

 the trees in spring deeply, and often carelessly. Nothing 

 can be more barbarous, for the ground is so shaded that no 

 surface roots can have the benefit of air and the heat of the 

 sun ; and if by any chance they could come to the surface, 

 they are, as a matter of course, destroyed by the spade. It is 

 true that in some of the rich market gardens near London 

 large quantities of fruit are grown in spite of the uncouth 

 treatment the trees receive, but this does not alter the case. 

 " In a well-ordered fruit garden every kind of fruit should 

 have its department, and instead of seeing, as in Kent, a 

 row of trees of all sorts, mixed in the most heterogeneous 

 manner, no mixture of species should be allowed; every 

 kind should have its allotment — Apples on the Paradise 

 stock, ditto on 

 the crab stock ; 

 Pears on the 

 quince stock, 

 the same on the 

 pear stock; Mo- 

 rello Cherries as 

 pyramids on the 

 Mahaleb stock 

 — the best of 

 all methods for 

 their culture — 

 and the various 

 kinds of Duke 

 Cherries on the 

 same stock; 

 Heart and Big- 

 arreau Cherries 

 on the common 

 cherry stock ; 

 Plums as bush- 

 es, pyramids, or 

 half- standards, 

 should all be se- 

 parated, and not 

 planted higgle- 

 dy-piggledy, as 

 they have been 

 andarenow.The 

 sound-headed market gardener will, when his mind is turned 

 to improved fruit-tree culture, see all this, and make his 

 fruit garden a pattern of order. 



" I have been led into these remarks on market garden 

 fruit-tree culture 'by my own experience, and especially into 

 a consideration of the great improvement that may be 

 made in the culture of Apples on the English Paradise 

 stock. These trees will this season, the third of then- growth 

 in their present quarters, and the fourth of their age, give 

 an average of a quarter of a peck from each tree, so that 

 we might have, from 4840 trees, growing on one acre of 

 ground, 302 bushels of fine Apples, which, even this abund- 

 ant season (1864), would be (if Cox's Orange), worth 5s. per 

 bushel, or £1o. In 1866, the trees then averaging half a 

 peck each, would double this sum, and make an acre of 

 Apple trees a very agreeable and eligible investment. The 

 kinds likely to sell best in the markets, and which are most 

 productive, are the following: — Cox's OrangePippin, Reinette 

 Van Mons, Ribston Pippin, Stunner Pippin, Scarlet Non- 

 pareil, and Dutch Mignonne. These are dessert Apples. 

 The following are valuable kitchen Apples, and abundant 

 bearers : — Hawthornden, New Hawthornden, Small's Admir- 

 able, Cox's Pomona, Keswick Codlin, Dumelow's Seedling, 

 Lord Suffield, Norfolk Bearer, Duchess of Oldenburgh, and 

 Forge Apple. Such large varieties as Bedfordshire Found- 

 ling, Blenheim Orange, and "Warner's King, should have 



more space, and be planted 4 feet apart, and be thinned out 

 by removal, as recommended for those planted 3 feet apart. 

 I refer the reader to pp. 53, 54 for the proper method of 

 planting these bush Apple trees, which is exactly that re- 

 commended for bush Pear trees on quince stocks. 



"It may be by some made a question of expense, for al- 

 though the return must be large and profitable, the purchase 

 of nearly 5000 Apple trees would involve a large outlay. To 

 this I reply — first, that stocks costing only a small sum per 

 thousand may be planted and grafted where the trees are to 

 grow permanently ; and, second, that a large demand, which 

 my method of planting would create, will also create a cheap 

 supply. The preparation of the ground should be as follows : 

 — It should, previous to planting, be forked over to a depth 

 of 20 inches ; if very poor and exhausted, from 30 to 40 tons 

 of manure may be forked in — not more, as trees such as I 

 have recommended — viz., Pears on the quince stock and 



Apples on the English Paradise stock, do not root deeply 



this ought to cost £6 13s. id. The annual expenses are 

 forking the surface in spring, £1 6s. 8d., and hoeing the 

 ground — say four times during the summer, ,£1 4s. I oi^e 

 the amounts paid here for such work. Then comes the sum- 

 mer-pinching of the shoots by a light-fingered active youth, 

 and this may at a guess be put down at £1, making the 

 aggregate annual expenses £3 10s. Sd., or say under £4. The 



large return will 

 amply afford 

 this outlay, even 

 adding, as we 

 ought to do, the 

 interest on capi- 

 tal and rent. 



"It will be 

 seen that what 

 I propose is in 

 reality a nursery 

 orchard, which 

 may be made to 

 furnish fruit and 

 trees for a con- 

 siderable num- 

 ber of years. To 

 fully compre- 

 hend this, we 

 must suppose a 

 rood of ground 

 planted, as I 

 have described, 

 with 1210 bush 

 Apple trees. In 

 the course of 

 eight or ten 

 years half of 

 these, or 605, 

 may be removed to a fresh plantation, in which they may be 

 planted 6 feet apart ; they will at once occupy half an acre 

 of ground. At the end of sixteen or eighteen years, every 

 alternate row of trees in the first plantation, the rood, 

 will require to be removed, which will give 302 trees to be 

 planted 6 feet apart, leaving 303 in the original rood. The 

 1210 trees will by this time occupy one acre of ground at 

 6 feet apart. With proper summer-pruning or pinching 

 they will not require any further change, but continue to 

 grow and bear fruit as long as they are properly cultivated. 

 The great advantage reaped by the planter is the constant 

 productiveness of his trees ; from the second year after 

 planting they will be always ' paying their way.' 



"The unprejudiced fruit-cultivator will quickly find out 

 the great advantage of my mode of Apple and Pear cul- 

 tivation. 



" In the usual old-fashioned mode, standard Apple trees 

 are planted in orchards at 20 feet apart, or 10S trees to the 

 acre. If the soil be good, and the trees properly planted, 

 and the planter a healthy middle-aged man, he may hope at 

 the end of his threescore and ten, to see his trees commenc- 

 ing to bear, and may die with the reflection that he has left 

 a valuable orchard as a legacy to his children, but has not 

 had much enjoyment of it during his life. Now, although, 

 like most fathers, I have a strong wish to benefit my children, 

 I hold the idea that one ought also to think of one's own 



