CONFERENCE ON FRUIT-GROWING. 



73 



handsomest fruits merit separation from the less attractive, and 

 will compensate the grower. 



Ripe gooseberries, like raspberries, should be gathered and sent 

 to market in their respective variety : 1 Keepsake,' ' Lancashire 

 Lad/ ' Crown Bob/ ' Early Kent/ ' Warrington,' ' Red Champagne/ 

 ' Early Sulphur.' ' Whitesmith,' ' Whinham's Industry,' each by 

 itself, commencing with ' Keepsake ' and ' Early Kent ' as green 

 gooseberries. Small berries should be picked out and sold separately. 



Apricots, nectarines, and peaches should be graded. What is 

 there attractive in a tray of ungraded peaches or nectarines ? The 

 small fruits appear smaller than they really are ; the larger fruits 

 appear to be larger than they are, and the whole present an appearance 

 less attractive than it should be. If possible, pack first, second, and 

 third sizes by themselves in packages presenting no disadvantages ; 

 and if thereby their size is neither increased nor diminished, the 

 small ones are not made to appear smaller by contrast with large 

 fruits. 



The matter of contrast in size applies with equal force to apples 

 and pears and other fruits. 



PEARS. 



The pear has probably received more attention in the matter of 

 grading than any other fruit, unless it be the strawberry, which has 

 been graded by nearly all growers for many years. 



Pears, unlike nearly all other hardy fruit, may be divided into 

 three groups : those grown upon walls, on bushes, and trained trees 

 in the garden, whether open or enclosed, and those grown in grass 

 orchards. But the fruit from each group should receive consideration 

 in the matter of grading. The finest pears are generally obtained 

 from walls, and, if thinning and mulching have been practised, the 

 majority of the finest pears will be of the first grade, the remainder 

 will probably be good second grade. The same remark applies to 

 the smaller varieties grown on walls, but these are seldom grown for 

 sale, but for home consumption. Pears grown in the open, on bushes 

 or on cordons, also produce many fruits of first and second grades, 

 especially if they have been fed and thinned. 



Sometimes, and in certain counties favourable for pears, a number 

 of very beautiful fruits are produced in grass orchards, and these 

 unquestionably deserve to be graded as firsts and seconds ; the 

 remainder generally being of third and fourth grades, with sometimes 

 a fifth for the boy customers of the third- and fourth-rate fruit shops. 

 Pears such as 1 Doyenne du Cornice,' ' Pitmaston Duchess,' ' Beurre 

 d'Amanlis,' 'Marie Louise,' 'Louise Bonne of Jersey,' 'Durondeau,' 

 ' Clapp's Favourite,' ' Chaumontel, ' ' Marie Louise d'Uccle,' ' Glou 

 Morceau,' ' Marechal de Cour,' &c, when grown on walls produce 

 fruit of the first and second quality when they have been duly thinned. 

 Garden bushes and trees trained as cordons and espaliers in the open 

 give a fair percentage of first grade, a large percentage of second grade, 



