HARDY FRUIT IN THE NORTH OF SCOTLAND. 



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HARDY FRUIT IN THE NORTH OF SCOTLAND. 



By Donald Maclean, F.R.H.S., Caithness. 

 [Read October 15, 1901.] 



Notwithstanding the severity of our climate in the far North, a great 

 deal can be accomplished by care and knowledge in growing hardy fruits 

 successfully. One of the greatest hindrances is the want of shelter. I 

 refer more especially to the county of Caithness, where, owing to the total 

 want of mountain shelter along the east and north, the inclemency of 

 the weather is felt more severely in winter and spring than in the neigh- 

 bouring counties of Sutherland and Ross. There is also the want of 

 forest-tree shelter, as forest-tree planting has been very much neglected 

 in Caithness on the presumption that forest trees will not grow to any 

 size ; but I think that there is ample evidence to show, by what have been 

 already planted, that if properly treated they would do fairly well, and, 

 while affording shelter for man and beast, would also add very much to 

 the beauty of the landscape. 



The cultivation of good fruit requires the utmost attention and fore- 

 thought from the gardener. The introduction of a worthless culinary 

 annual or perennial vegetable into a garden is a trivial loss compared 

 to the introduction of a worthless fruit tree. The one only disappoints 

 for a season, the other for a number of years. The one can be rectified 

 perhaps the same year, and if not, certainly in the succeeding one, but the 

 other takes some years to arrive at that perfection which will enable one 

 to judge of its merits. The disappointment is therefore great when, 

 instead of being repaid for years of anxious care by possessing a fine fruit, 

 we find it at last to be perhaps of even less merit than any other in the 

 garden. We have, therefore, to study particularly those varieties that do 

 best in this rather fickle climate. 



The winds blow west or north-west during three-fourths of the year, 

 and frequently rise into strong gales in winter, spring, and autumn. 

 The prevailing wind from the beginning of May till the end of June is 

 usually from the north-west, and from the end of June till September is 

 variable from south-west to south-east, but seldom from the north. 

 During this season vegetation makes perhaps a more rapid progress than 

 it does in counties enjoying a better climate. This may be accounted for 

 by the check given to vegetation in May. In part also it may be due to 

 the longer hours of sunlight which we have at midsummer in the far 

 North. 



The soil is a dark and, in some parts, a clayey loam, well adapted for 

 agriculture, which is carried on with as much skill and success as in any 

 other part of Scotland. 



Standard or pyramid fruit trees of the Apple, Pear, Plum, and 

 Cherry are not found profitable here ; in fact, they should not be 

 attempted, as, on account of the biting Avinds, all such fruits require the 

 shelter of good high walls. South walls fourteen feet high are the most 

 suitable ; and trees that are well attended to give splendid results on them. 



' Beauty of Kent ' is the Apple which seems to do better than any 



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