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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



on, but much remains to be done before we can invite inspection. 

 Although the apple is a long-lived tree, and perfectly hardy in 

 all its parts save its flowers, the occupants of many of our oldest 

 orchards, crippled by age, bad usage, and neglect, are past re- 

 covery, and should be cleared away, but the ground they occupy 

 should not be replanted if better or equally good sites can be 

 found for new plantations. Other orchards again, containing 

 thoroughly sound young trees, although of inferior sorts, after 

 the grubber's axe has passed over the land, may be converted by 

 grafting and resuscitated by draining and top-dressing. Some of 

 our oldest orchards, which date back to the Wars of the Boses, 

 contain a great number of wildings or kernel fruits of no value 

 to the owners even, whilst younger plantations are crowded with 

 healthy, vigorous trees, at one time supposed to be Norman, but 

 now proved to be English seedlings, no better than the stocks 

 used in large nurseries. Upon the first I would not spend money, ■ 

 as they are too old for grafting, too old to pay rent, too old for 

 anything save loss and disappointment. The second I would 

 behead and regraft with choice varieties which have been proved 

 in the locality. Confining myself to old orchards now existing 

 or languishing in the Western Counties, I may close my remarks 

 upon this head by saying : cut down all useless trees, thin out 

 the heads of those worth keeping ; cleanse the branches and 

 stems from moss and insects ; regraft sound, healthy trees into 

 good market sorts, and see that the drainage is satisfactory. I 

 will not presume to inform practical men who may deign to read 

 my remarks that sound, deep, naturally-drained orchards are 

 better than others which require artificial treatment, and that a 

 certain quantity of moisture in the soil is absolutely necessary, 

 but on no account must it be stagnant. All gardeners are well 

 acquainted with the fact that soils too dry produce fruit that is 

 small and mealy, whilst water-logged soils are several degrees 

 colder than others of similar texture that are free from this root- 

 chilling poison. They know, moreover, that warm summer rains 

 run off the surface, whilst the sun acts very slowly in raising the 

 temperature of the wet subsoil, in which deeply-seated roots soon 

 perish, and those nearest the surface are little better off, as they 

 do not commence fresh action much before Midsummer. Drain- 

 age, all good cultivators assert, is the first essential in the pre- 

 paration of new orchards or in the renovation of old ones, and 

 why ? Well, simply because the removal of stagnant, if not 

 putrid, water and the introduction of fresh air raises the tem- 

 perature of the soil from three to five degrees, a condition which 

 not infrequently forms the dividing line betwixt success and 

 failure. 



So far my remarks have been confined to old orchards, planted 

 haphazard upon all sorts and conditions of badly prepared land, 

 as well as in unfavourable situations. The best of these may be 



