324 



FRUIT CULTURE : 



serve tliat I specially recommend only one species of cor- 

 don for the Apple. There are many kinds^ with varions merits. 

 The grower for market will also oblige me by bearing in 

 mind that I only recommend it for the garden and for a 

 special pm-pose. Emphatically I say that a good hardy 

 kind on a well-managed standard or naturally developed 

 tree is the best for the supply of the markets with all but 

 the best fruits, and for all ordinary purposes; and that the 

 system of orcharding in the London market gardens is on 

 the whole a good and safe one. Generally speaking our 

 apple-culture is not to be complained of, though it may 

 certainly be improved. There is in this country a large 

 demand for fruit of the finest quality that can be obtained, 

 both in the case of those who buy all they use and those 

 who grow their own. In these islands it is also generally 

 admitted that to keep the sun from the general contents of 

 our gardens by shading them with Apple trees is anything 

 but desirable, and therefore I recommend the cordon trained 

 as an edging, and on wire, tightened as before described, 

 at one foot from the groimd. I have ascertained beyond 

 all question that where well managed these will, if placed 

 alongside the walks in the kitchen and fruit gardens, fur- 

 nish abundance of fruit without planting any others. 



Now, in many places the positions in which this plantation 

 may be made are quite unoccupied, and therefore the system 

 will prove a decided gain. It will have to encounter pre- 

 judice and bad management ; but once well managed speci- 

 mens are seen in our gardens it will spread rapidly through 

 these islands, and prove a great boon wherever perfect fruit 

 is desired. I have passed through many parts of northern 

 England and Scotland during the past year or two — districts 

 in which every ray of sun is required ; and yet in these you 

 see in all directions the gardens shaded and half destroyed 

 by old standard Apple trees. This is especially the case with 

 the smaller class of gardens, in which you Diay frequently 

 see gouty old trees shading and souring the aspect of the 

 very house itself. The objections urged against the simple 

 cordon are dealt with in the chapter devoted to this system 

 of culture. Let no person think he has fairly tried 



