Pictorial Practical Fruit 

 Growing. 



CDapter 1 — Cbe Art oT Utllisina Space. 



iJlHE greatest of the many delusions which mislead 

 people who want to grow their own frait is that it 

 cannot be done in a small garden. 



The largest quantity of fruit cannot be grown on 

 a small plot of ground, but the best quality can. 

 The man who knows everything, and has likewise 

 forgotten a good deal, may point to the low standard 

 of merit observable in the market produce sent up 

 from the little homestead ; but he forgets that the 

 sender has very likely inherited a legacy from a pre- 

 decessor who iirst of all put in bad trees and after- 

 wards made worse of them by ignorant management. Where trees are well 

 handled in small gardens they yield superb fruit, although the quantity of 

 it may be small. 



I want to show how it is possible to get good fruit in nearly every 

 garden, however limited it may be ; and I also want to make clear that 

 much depends on a wise utilisation of the space at disposal. The art of 

 economical fruit culture is to make the best of every inch of ground. By 

 selecting the right type of tree, and cultivating and feeding the soil 

 thoroughly, a score of healthy trees, yielding large, juicy fruit of the finest 

 quality, may be grown on a space often devoted to only one. 



If a dead fruit grower of the old school heard of sixty fruit trees being 

 grown on 3 square rods of ground in an open situation in the kitchen 

 garden, without wall or fence, he would turn in his grave ; yet there is nothing 

 whatever impracticable about it. On the contrary, it may be done with 

 ease, without a great deal of expense, and with immense interest and 

 benefit to the cultivator. 



Fig. 1 (page 2) represents_a framework of posts and wire by means of 

 which twenty-four trees may be grown in 20 square yards of ground. 

 A A represent stumps driven into the ground, and C show stout posts 

 connected with and supported by the stumps through the medium of stout 

 galvanised wire, B £. D V B indicate lighter posts set between the larger 

 ones. E E E show the wires for supporting the trees G, and F F is the 

 ground line. 

 Let us glance briefly at each of the items of this much-in-little system. 

 The stumps A should be 1 yard long or thereabouts, pickled or well 

 dressed with creosote. They should be at least 4 inches in diameter, and 

 must be driven into the ground at a slight angle. Holes must not be dug 

 for them, as, however well the soil may be rammed in afterwards, the stumps 

 will not hold. They may be set about 5 feet behind C. 



