1042 



PB ACTIO AL GUIDE TO GARDEN PLANTS 



APPLE 



"When the fruits are well set, and haye 

 been sufficiently thinned out, the trees 

 will be greatly assisted by a good mulch 

 of a compost similar to that in which 

 they were potted in the autumn. It is 

 best heaped up round the edge of the pots 

 so as to leave a hollow in the centre to 

 hold the water. Liquid manure in weak 

 doses may also be given two or three 

 times a week at this period, and may be 

 composed of cow manure, with a little 

 soot and guano added, the whole being 

 kept in a bag in the water tank. About 

 a tumblerful added to one or two gallons 

 of water, according to the state of growth, 

 will be sufficient, but care must be taken 

 not to give over-doses. 



The application of water is an im- 

 portant matter, and should never be 

 neglected at the proper moment. The 

 soil should never be brought into a sodden 

 state by over-watering, nor should it be 

 allowed to get dust dry. The medium 

 course should be followed, always allowing 

 the soU to get just a little on the drier 

 side before giving a thoroughly good 

 soaking with water. 



After the beginning of June the 

 weather will as a rule be warm enough to 

 move the plants out of doors without any 

 danger of frost, and the fruit may be 

 allowed to ripen in the ordinary way, but 

 it is stire to be much earlier than that 

 borne by trees which have been in the 

 open air the whole year. 



It is an excellent plan to have two 

 sets of fruit trees in pots, so that one lot 

 may be grown under glass one year, and 

 plunged outside in good rich soil the next. 

 By this means better crops are produced, 

 and the plants are not subjected to such 

 a severe strain as if forced year after 

 year. 



Kinds of Feuit Cultivated 



It is an extraordinary fact that nearly 

 all our best and choicest hardy fruits are 

 confined to one natural order. The 

 Apple, Pear, Plum, Bullace, Damson, 

 Cherry, Apricot, Peach, Nectarine, Easp- 

 berry. Blackberry, Strawberry, Medlar, 

 and Quince all belong to the natural 

 order Eosaoese, the botanical characters 

 of which are given at p. 855. The 

 Gooseberry and Currant belong to the 

 Saxifrage order, described at p. 414, 

 while the Fig, Walnut, Cob Nut, Sweet 

 Chestnut and Mulberry belong each to 

 a different order. The Tomato should be 



classed as a fruit properly speaking, but 

 as it is usually and quite arbitrarily 

 considered as a vegetable it is dealt with 

 in that portion of the work, p. 1137. At 

 almost every exhibition throughout the 

 kingdom the conditions are so arranged 

 that the Tomato shaU appear in the 

 vegetable classes. It is however gradually 

 winning its way as a dessert fruit, and wUl 

 ere long probably take its rightful place 

 in exhibitions among the fruit classes. 



Propagation of Feuit Trees 

 The methods of increasing the various 

 kinds of fruit trees described in the 

 following pages are referred to in the 

 proper place. But it may be as well to 

 state here, for the benefit of amateurs who 

 have perhaps neither time nor inclination 

 to multiply their own stock, that it will 

 be far better to obtain fruit trees grafted, 

 budded, or ' struck ' on their own roots as 

 the case may be, from nurserymen who 

 make an art of this branch of gardening. 



In the following pages are described 

 the best varieties of firuits suitable for out- 

 door cultivation in the British Islands. 

 No attempt is made to give descriptions 

 of all the varieties enumerated in nursery- 

 men's catalogues, but those which have 

 been proved by experience to yield the 

 best results will be dealt with fully. It is 

 quite a mistake to have too many kinds 

 of any particular fruit in a garden. 

 It is far better to grow a few first-class 

 varieties that wUl flourish and can be 

 attended to properly than to have several 

 which succeed only passably. It must be 

 remembered that certain kinds of fruits 

 flourish with scarcely any attention in 

 some parts of the coimtry, hut are more 

 or less miserable failures in other' parts, 

 owing to the difference probably in soil, 

 situation and surroundings. Local con- 

 ditions should therefore always be fully 

 considered before deciding to plant. 



THE APPLE (Pybus MALUS).-The 

 Apple is probably the most important 

 of all fruits for outdoor cultivation in the 

 British Islands. The wild form or Crab 

 Apple is a native plant but is also found 

 generally throughout the north tempe- 

 rate hemisphere. It is rather small and 

 stunted in appearance, with a sour and 

 unpalatable fruit. Still from it have been 

 obtained almost all the fine ' varieties 

 cultivated at the present day. 



The cultivated Apple tree rarely ex- 



