896 



THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



November 23, 1912. 



putting down land as a mixed fruit plan- 

 ration^ there is necessarily a big initial out- 

 lay, varying according to circumstances, 

 but it is very essential that the land should 

 l3e well cultivated, and, alx)ve all things, 

 clean. To plant fruit on land that is foul 

 ^vith twitch or other obnoxious weeds is 

 a fatal mistake, and if an arable field is 

 planted^ there should be no labour stinted 

 in getting it clean. Under some circum- 

 stances, ploughing will suffice in preparing 

 for planting, but in others it may be neces- 

 sary to resort to the more expensive opera- 

 tion of digging or even double digging, par- 

 ticularly where grass land is l>eing broken 

 up for fruit, as it is very desirable that the 

 turf be buried well beneath the surface. 

 In short, the Avhole success of plantation 

 fruit culture consists in doing things well, 

 and the l)etter the initial start tlie less 

 will be the cultural expetuliture later on. 



Arrangring Pla^ntations. 



There are many different ways of arrang- 

 ing mixed estate plantations that are suittHl 

 to different conditions, but the general ob- 

 ject is to occupy the ground and get a re- 

 turn as quickly as possible. To this end a 

 certain section of the trees will be of a per- 

 manent character, consisting of apples, 



pears, and plums, and the other portion 

 will be temporary and comprising such 

 fruits as gooseberries, currants, raspberries, 

 and strawberries. I am aware, in writing 

 this, that there a 



land devoted to these latter fruits, and 

 where the object is to grow a quantity of 

 soft fruit, this is obviously the course to 

 pursue, but the estate plantation I have in 

 view is permanently intended for bard 

 fruits, and the berries ixny only included 

 as an under < rop to occupy ground, and 

 give a return until the other trees occupy 

 the space. It is quite a mistake to think 

 that apples, pears, and plums can be grown 

 p(^rmanently with small bush and berry 

 fruits, because there i-nmes a day when tlie 

 latter have to give way to the fornier ; 

 therefore, if the main idea is to grow small 

 fruits in bulk, the land should he given up 

 to them entirely. 



As a temporary crop, however, bush fruit 

 will yield a profit for a few years after com- 

 ing into bearing in a mixed plantation, and 

 help to pay expenses until the permanent 

 trees arrive at a fruit-bearing condition. 

 In arranging the planting scheme then, the 

 sites of permanent trees should be first 

 selected, and the intervening spaces be 

 filled with bushes. 



Types of Trees. 



Apples ;i re the fruits which claim first 

 attention, arid, \aluable though standards 

 are for orchards, the bush trees are the 

 best for fruit |)lan tat ions, because they 

 come into bearing quickly, and most of the 

 operations in n^spect of pruning and pick- 

 ing can be done from the ground. I do not 

 much favour the practice of mixing uj) 

 plums and pears and a|)pk\s, but prefer 

 breaks of these fruits distinct if they are all 

 grown. Bush apples of moderate vigour do 

 very well at 10ft. apart, but vigorous 

 growers like Bramley's Seedling are not too 

 clovse at 12ft. apart, and when planting it 

 is well to consider what the tree "will be 

 liko when fully develo])ed. For the most 

 part bush trees aie worked on the Para- 

 diso stock for plantation work, but it is 

 unwivse for propagators to make hard-and- 

 fast rules in the matter, be aiis*^ such ex- 

 cellent apples as Stirlinu Castl*' and Lane's 

 Prince Albort aiw^ itiorf^ pernianentlv profit- 

 able if wfU'ked on the more vigorous free 

 or crab stock. 



The above remarks as to distances applv 

 to pears in the bn^b or pvrnmid form, huf 

 plums are brst as balf-standards and tln^se 

 may be planted at loft, apart. After de- 



ciding the positions of the permanent trees 

 it will be seen how many bushes of goose- 

 berries or currants can be accommodated 

 at, say, oft. apart between the rows of 

 trees and also between the specimens in 

 the rows. Rows of strawberries, 2ft. apart, 

 are often grown for a few years between 

 lines of apples, and so are raspberries, but, 

 owing to the natural habit of the latter 

 fruit, I think they are better in breaks by 

 themselves. Young, well-grown trees that 

 have been cut back once in the nursery are 

 suitable for planting, and hundreds of these 

 specimens are sold every year for planta- 

 tions, bnt let it be a rule to plant good 

 trees, wtiich, if dearer at the outset, are 

 cheaper in th<' ernl. 



Half-standard plums should have clean 

 stems an<l good lunxds, gooseberries and red 

 ciu'rants should be specimens raised from 

 cuttings, with clean stems well above the 

 ground, hut the clean-stemmed bush is not 

 desi!al)'(' in black currants, where theobject 



is to got as much young wood as possible 

 t'very year from the base. H. 



(To be continued.) 



RASPBERRIES. 



When properly treated the raspberry is 

 one of the quickest of all our hardy fruits 

 to come into bearing, even the strawberry 



, 1 • I ] . ■ • . - -"^ tjciiit^s vviiii:ii mux atjt'iii to ue meres- 



" a If^ ''^"^^ f '^^^ -^l* eive It many points m ^^ry should be deferred till the plantation 



himdriHls of acres of ^lus respevt, while an established planta- is overhauled in the early spring 



ter should follow, when they might freeze 

 out. 



It is a common thing to see the soil of a 

 raspberry plantation heaten down like a 

 road all the summer and autumn^ which is 

 followed by the digging in of a little manure 

 in the winter. This is the worst treatment 

 possible. The raspberry, being such a sur- 

 face rooter, should not be even hoed to 

 a depth of more than half an inch^ and not 

 allowed to dry out. The surface should be 

 kept loose all the spring, and a little nitrate 

 of soda given during flowering-time, and 

 at the end of May or beginning of June, 

 according to the dryness of the season, a 

 mulch of manure should be put all over the' 

 bed, and, if it is very dry, given a good 

 soaking immediately afterwards to wash in 

 some of the goodness, the mulch^ in any 

 ordinary season, keeping the surface from 

 getting unduly dry until most of the fruit 

 has been gathered. The mulch will make a 

 clean surface to walk on in all weathers 

 without kneading the soil. 



AVhen the fruit has all been gathered, or 

 there is not enough remaining to make it 

 worth while to leave the old fruiting canes 

 any longer, these should be cut out, as well 

 as any superfluous young ones, and the rest 

 tied in for the winter, taking care not to 

 break the leaves off the young canes that 

 are left if it can be avoided. Any shorten- 

 ing of canes which may seem to be neces- 



tion keeps up a good yield for many years, 

 and the fruiting season is a fairly pro- 

 longed one. There is this peculiarity about 

 the raspherry, though some of its roots run 

 just uruler the surface, others go down very 

 (hH'ply, and this should be borne in mind 

 when preparing the ground for planting. It 

 should be dug a couple of feet deep, but 

 the lowest spit should not be brought to the 

 surface utdess it is of an exceptionally good 

 character. The finest raspberries I ever 

 saw, both in luxuriance of growth and in 

 size and quantity of fruit, were in the 

 trough of a valley in the Black Forest, in 

 South Germany, where the soil was black 

 and spongy with the residue of decaying 

 leaves, and was fed at every considerable 

 rainfall by tho washing down of similar 

 materials from the forests of pines on the 

 mountain slopes, which afforded a good deal 

 of sluide to the vegetation below. This 

 shows us something of the raspberiy's 

 favourite habitat in a state of nature, and 

 we all know it will stand more shade and 

 dampness than almost any fruit, except 

 the gooseberry. 



There is little fear of doing the raspberry 

 too well, and unless the soil is in very good 

 heart where it is to be planted, it 'would 

 be w(^!l to mix manure and organic refuse 

 of all sorts with the wliole depth of worked 

 soil^ and, in any case, bone meal and quar- 

 ter-inch bones should be mixed with it to 

 form a lasting reserve of phosphate of Hme 

 The beginning of November is the best time 

 to make a plantation, though^ if the canes 

 have to come from a distance, it would per- 

 haps be worth while to wait another ten 

 days for the leaves to fall, men moved 

 from one part of the garden to another 

 th:s mav l)e done with advantage as early 

 as the tluixl week in October, unless it is 

 a dry time, and they will scarcely feel the 

 move. A store of bonfire ashes ^'s a crood 

 thmg to put over the roots, as thev s'tart 

 very quickly in this. Any idea of fruit 

 the first year should })e given up the 

 canes being <Mit down in March to within a 

 foot of the ground. If \hvy ^i^,^^.^^ 



in the autumn water will rolloct in th,. hoi 

 low stenis. and frost following will cause 

 then! lu sj.lit, with the result that they will 

 dio back. i)erhaps even to the root' \ 

 mulch of strawy manure shoubl be put over 

 the soil about the roots in case a hard win 



Of the various methods of supporting the 

 canes, the fixing of bamboos horizontally 

 along the rows and tying the canes to them 

 is probably as good as any, and certainly 

 better than tying the canes to stakes in 

 groups. To prevent the canes sliding too 

 much along the bamboos the raffia, or other 

 material, should be first tied firmly to the 

 bamboos and then loosely to the canes. At 

 the time these operations are done the soil 

 should receive a dressing of basic slag at the 

 rate of five or six pounds to forty square 

 yards, and this should be lightly hoed in, 

 the mulch by this time breaking up, for 

 the most part, under the hoe. If, how- 

 ever, the soil is a sandy or gravelly one, and 

 not very rich in humus, it would be better 

 to apply bone meal or steamed bone flour 

 instead at the same rate, supplemented by 

 three pounds of kainit in the winter to the 

 same area. The mulch will probably have 

 kept down the wee<ls, but two hoeings 

 during September and' October will keep 

 under any that may establish themselves, 

 and be very beneficial in other ways, after 

 which the plantation will w^ant no further 

 attention till the early spring, when there 

 will probably be a few dead canes to cut 

 out, others to tie in, and some to shorten, 

 while the surface should be lightly hoed as 

 soon as it will work well, and thereafter 

 kept from caking together till the mulch 

 IS applied early in the summer. 



A word as to varieties must conclude 

 these notes. As there is no one kind which is 

 the best for all purposes, a compromise has 

 to be made, unless two or three sorts are 

 going to be planted. Superlative is gene- 

 rally considered the best raspberry to plant, 

 as it is a heavy bearer of large fruit, and 

 has an extended season, but it does not do 

 well on all soils, being sometimes a failure 

 on a tenacious clay, while the fruit is rather 

 acid for dessert. ^ Baumforth's Seedling is 

 one of the best, being regarded as an im- 

 proved Northumberland Fillbasket. The 

 old Red Antwerp is still scarcely to be im- 

 proved upon as a dessert fruit/ being very 

 rich and sweet. For preserving there is 

 nr)nr hotter than Semper fidelis, which is 

 mov^. ncul than most, and comes on after 

 oth<'rs ar(^ over, lasting throughout August 

 and well into Se])tember. Xcu'wicb Wonder 

 and Carter's Prolifi<* are two good growers 



and heavy croppers. 



Alger Petts. 



