1905.] National Fruit and Cider Institute. 523 



At present the department is in three divisions, which, taken 

 in their order of formation, are : — (1) the Orchards ; (2) the 

 Nursery; and (3) the Plantation. 



The Orchards. — The orchards comprise rather more than two- 

 thirds of the land rented, which is about fourteen acres. One 

 is an old orchard, taken from the former tenant, and contains a 

 typical collection of trees of different ages and sizes, in various 

 stages of healthfulness or otherwise, some producing apples 

 good for eating or cooking, others bearing fairly good fruit for 

 cider-making, while other trees are good for nothing but fire- 

 wood, being either decrepit or bearing apples which are useless 

 for any of the above purposes. Many of the whole collection 

 are unknown as regards names, being just local varieties and 

 seedlings. The quite useless trees will be removed and replaced, 

 but the others, being useful for the demonstration of pruning, 

 spraying, &c, will be retained. 



An experiment is being tried in this old orchard with liquid 

 farmyard manure (of which there is abundance), to see how it 

 will improve not only the trees but the grass and herbage 

 underneath them. Farmers as a rule, even if they know the 

 value of this manure, do not preserve it as they might do, con- 

 sidering that it is one of the very best and cheapest forms of 

 fertiliser obtainable. 



In the new orchard about 200 trees were planted in the season 

 of 1903-4. They are nearly all apples, but about two dozen 

 pears have been included. All of them, as well as every 

 other tree planted on the Institute land, have been planted 

 with a view to experimenting on them in various ways. In the 

 first place two very different kinds of trees, called " Herefords " 

 and "Somersets" respectively, to distinguish the two systems, 

 were used in alternate rows. 



The "Hereford" System. — Those termed "Herefords" are 

 the best of the varieties grown in Hereford, but budded close to 

 the ground on the seedling apple or crab stock to form a stem 

 and head with such variety as they have to bear permanently. 

 This system is in vogue not only in Hereford, but in all other 

 counties v/here there are nurseries. It is, generally speaking, 

 the best method, and has the advantage over what we have 

 called the " Somerset " method, as the trees come more quickly 



