REPORT OF THE APPLE AND PEAR CONFERENCE. 



29 



Mr. Tones could quite understand why it was left out. He 

 grew a large number of strawberries, but he could not get 

 the British Queen to fruit at all on his ground. 



Mr. T. Bun yard spoke as to the effect of climate on fruit 

 trees. Everything had been considered but dew. He had 

 noticed on fruit trees, that while the lower branches had been 

 saturated with dew the upper branches were quite dry. He 

 thought frost would have a more injurious effect on dew- saturated 

 blossoms than on the dry ones. The water got in and ruptured 

 the germ, and there was an end of the fruit. 



Mr. George Bunyard remarked that no one could help being 

 struck with the different effects of frost on different varieties 

 of fruit. If you look on an orchard in blossom you will notice 

 that some trees hold the flowers much more upright than 

 others, and in some the blooms quite hang down, e.g., Jargonelle 

 Pear ; and this might be a point worth noticing with regard 

 to the varying effects of frost. He would also recommend planters 

 to have an eye to the habit of different varieties. The Czar 

 Plum, for instance, he considered better than the Prolific, if 

 there was to be an under crop between, for the Czar grows 

 erect like a Lombardy Poplar, whereas in a very few years 

 Prolific would come down on to the undergrowth. 



Mr. Pearson said that after fruit trees were once planted, if 

 anything went wrong it was always the nurseryman who was 

 blamed and never the planter ; whereas if you examined into the 

 matter you would find nine times out of ten that the trees had 

 been thoroughly good trees to start with, but that they had 

 been either simply stuck into a hole or planted too deep. 

 As a general rule he thought trees were planted nearly always 

 three times too deep. He could not consider anything more 

 unjust to the fruit tree than to have its roots buried so deeply 

 that they could not get sun or air. He was against deep 

 planting, and he would even suggest that on heavy strong land 

 planting should be done on a mound, and the more they prepared 

 the land the better would be the result. Replying to a question 

 as to how deep he would plant, he said there was always a mark 

 round the tree as it grew in the nursery, and if they planted to 

 the same point again they could not go wrong. 



Mr. Shirley Hibberd said he should like to point out a 

 source of danger in private gardens where "sticking in" was 

 done. Wherever a tree had been for any considerable length of 

 time it was a dangerous matter to plant another in the same spot, 

 for nine times out of ten there would be in the soil a number of 

 the old roots, which would breed a mass of fungus. 



Mr. Dean said his rule was to plant plums where apples 

 had been, as while plums took one constituent out of the soil, 

 apples took another. 



