28 



APPLE. 



of August. It is not so plentiful now as it was sixty 

 years back; though, as being the earliest dessert 

 apple, it deserves cultivation. The fruit is small, of a 

 light-green colour, somewhat elongated, and borne 

 on a long slender stalk. The shoots are slender, 

 though upright. The fruit require to be gathered a 

 day or two before they are ripe, as this improves 

 their quality for the table. 



As this apple is rather a shy bearer, several of 

 them on paradise stocks should be trained as dwarfs, 

 and one or two on crab stocks as espaliers. These 

 last will ripen later, and keep good longer. It is 

 said that Mr. Kirke, nurseryman, of Brompton near 

 London, has a red variety of this apple, much supe- 

 rior in quality to the white one. The Juneating is 

 an eligible sort for growing in pots ; and the best 

 manner of treating the trees is as follows : — Provide 

 neat little maiden plants on paradise stocks, and pots 

 for each twelve inches wide at top and ten in depth. 

 Prepare some good compost, like that used for me- 

 lons ; that is, fresh hazel-loam with plenty of decom- 

 posed old hot-bed or other dung. Drain the pots 

 well ; and, when potted, plunge them in the ground 

 in a sheltered situation, covering the surface over 

 the pots with an inch or two of exhausted mulchy 

 dung, to keep the roots safe from the changes of the 

 weather. Here they may remain twelve months. In 

 the second sj)ring (supposing them to be potted in 

 the early part of the first year), when the buds begin 

 to swell, they should be pruned, reducing weak 

 shoots to half their length, and strong shoots one- 



