300 



HARDY FRUIT GARDEN. 



fifty, as he supposes, different sorts, finds, upon 

 consulting a list similar to our own, where the 

 synonyms are given, that he has not more than 

 one-third of the number of really distinct varie- 

 ties in his selection, and that the remainder are 

 only different names for the few he finds to be 

 really distinct. And well it is for him who has 

 consulted such a list, for, had he not, it is pro- 

 bable his misfortune would not be discovered 

 until the trees had arrived at a bearing state — a 

 loss both of time and of hope. In illustration 

 of this, we may state that a person not well ac- 

 quainted with such matters, in purchasing 

 twenty peach trees, might find, when they 

 fruited, he had in reality got only one sort, 

 namely, the Grosse mignonne, which has no less 

 than twenty-three English synonyms besides 

 several French ones, and all, it must be ad- 

 mitted, very taking and popular names too. 



In pears, apples, cherries, &c, similar in- 

 stances, although not to the same extent, occur ; 

 and this confusion exists (as in the case of the 

 peach referred to) more generally with the very 

 best sorts than with those of inferior quality. 



In former times, not only our commercial 

 orchards, but many of our best private gardens, 

 were encumbered with fruit trees, few of which 

 had much claim on the attention of the culti- 

 vator — a fact which a reference to the nursery 

 catalogues of the early part of the present cen- 

 tury, or a glance back at our early days, will 

 sufficiently prove. These things are now greatly 

 altered, so far as the leading nursery catalogues 

 and the best private gardens are concerned ; but 

 we regret to see little improvement taking place 

 in the cider orchards of England, and the large 

 commercial orchards in Scotland. The former, 

 in a commercial point of view, require great 

 amendment, and the attention of cider-makers 

 should be directed more to chemistry than to 

 "use and wont;" the latter, if not speedily 

 remodelled, had better be utterly destroyed, as 

 no one will use such inferior fruit as is grown 

 in them, while they can obtain a superior 

 article at the same cost, brought from Holland, 

 France, or Germany. Not that we think the 

 fruits imported from either of these countries, 

 although they possess greater natural advantages 

 in regard to climate than our own, are in general 

 equal to what might be produced at home, were 

 we to discard our inferior sorts, and cultivate 

 such improved sorts as are quite suitable to our 

 climate. If this is not done, there is no doubt 

 that the land at present occupied as orchard 

 ground would be far more profitably employed 

 in the production of agricultural crops. We 

 believe there are few situations, either in Eng- 

 land or Scotland, dedicated to the production of 

 fruit, that, under good management and a judi- 

 cious selection of sorts, might not produce fruit 

 equal, and in many cases superior, to that im- 

 ported. Both remain nearly stationary, as re- 

 gards culture and selection ; and while they 

 remain in their present state, they must con- 

 tinue to be unprofitable to their owners. 



In market-gardening considerable improve- 

 ment has taken place — a result arising from com- 

 petition from abroad ; and the day is not far 

 distant when the trashy fruits which at present 



cumber and greatly deteriorate other crops in 

 such gardens, both in England and Scotland, 

 will be removed, and their places occupied with 

 better sorts. This was done almost simultane- 

 ously by most of the large commercial growers 

 about London, as soon as the superior Flemish 

 and other pears were made known to them. 

 Apples and all other fruits underwent a similar 

 change ; so that the kinds found in the market 

 thirty years ago, with the exception of a few 

 good and standard sorts, are now almost un- 

 known even by name. A similar improvement 

 has taken place in most private gardens by the 

 introduction of sorts of the very highest charac- 

 ter, possessing the properties of ripening early 

 and keeping late, thus spreading the fruit season 

 over the greater part of the year, instead of its 

 covering, as formerly, scarcely half of that period. 



We would remind those (and we know there 

 are many such) who, from a mistaken notion of 

 economy, still allow their gardens to be crowded 

 with old and worthless sorts and worn-out 

 trees, producing precarious crops — and those on 

 walls in general towards the extremities of 

 their branches, and of very inferior quality — 

 how much they lose^ both in quantity and qua- 

 lity, and how much they would gain by rooting 

 such trees out, and planting those of higher 

 merit. There is no profit in very large fruit- 

 trees : if standards, they scarcely repay the 

 value of the ground they occupy ; and if on 

 walls, as we have stated above, scarcely one- 

 sixth of the surface is made available for the 

 production of fruit. 



Trees of moderate size afford a greater variety, 

 because a greater number can be planted in a 

 given space, and, if managed as recommended 

 by the best writers of the present day, they will 

 come into bearing a year or two after planting, 

 will be most productive, and continue in health 

 and productiveness, if rightly treated, for a 

 quarter of a century — quite long enough for 

 any fruit-bearing tree, exposed to our variable 

 climate, to be allowed to exist. No doubt 

 there are some exceptions to this rule, but they 

 are very few indeed. In the selection of hardy 

 fruits much discrimination is required, so as to 

 adapt the sorts to the requirements of the 

 owner, as well as to the situation, soil, and 

 climate where they are to grow. Over soil we 

 have complete control ; over situation and cli- 

 mate we have comparatively little, and here it 

 is that the judgment of the planter is called 

 into action. Latitude should weigh with him 

 much less than altitude ; for experience teaches 

 us that many excellent fruits will arrive at 

 great perfection at 100 feet of altitude, which 

 would scarcely ripen at all at double that height 

 in the same latitude. Some localities are, how- 

 ever, from natural causes, little understood, 

 better adapted to the ripening of fruit than 

 others, even in the same latitude, and at the 

 same elevation. The green gage plum we may 

 instance as an extraordinary example of this : it 

 is found to ripen, as a standard, to greater per- 

 fection at Traquair, from 400 to 500 feet above 

 the level of the sea, than it does at Dalkeith, 

 which is only 100 feet — the two places being 

 within half a degree of each other. The gar- 



