18 RATIONAL FRUIT CULTURE 



CHAPTER IV. 



TQE ARRANGEMENT OF FRIIT TREES. 



THE fact that, as shown in the last chapter, many varie- 

 ties of fruit trees are more or less self -sterile, affects 

 the owner of a small plot more than the large grower. 

 He may not have space for more than, say, three trees, and 

 if they are to be an Apple, a Pear, and a Plmn, he should 

 select a self-fertile variety of each, or else he should procure, 

 grafted on the same stock, two varieties which flower about 

 the same time, and are capable of fertilising one another. 



TWO VARIETIES ON TOE SAME STOCK. 



In old gardens trees doubly grafted in this way are not 

 uncommon. They may have been operated on by some enthu- 

 siast who was anxious to prove his skill, or he may have 

 wanted merely to add some other variety to those he already 

 had; certainly at that time there was no suspicion of the fact 

 which has since been discovered; but as such trees generally 

 bear well, it is curious that nobody seems to have been in- 

 duced to try to find out the reason. A year or two ago it 

 would have been difficult to buy trees of the sort, but there 

 is now sure to be an increasing demand for them, and nur- 

 serymen will not be slow to satisfy it. 



MANY VARIETIES OR FEW ? 



Of course, the gardener who grows fruit for profit will 

 have more than two or three trees, and if they are not all of 

 the same self-sterile variety, he may have no trouble about 

 tfheir fertilisation. There is an advantage in not having many 

 different varieties — large lots, maturing at the same time, are 



