ON PEAKS. 



341 



came enamoured of the cordon system of growing fruit trees, so 

 much so that I verily believe, had I seconded his wishes in 

 that direction, there would now be in the Heckfield Gardens 

 but few Pear trees except in the form of cordons. This 

 mania I was able to satisfy to some extent, by destroy- 

 ing a quantity of old horizontally trained trees, and after 

 remaking and entirely renewing the soil of the borders, half 

 of the space was planted with cordon Pears grafted on the 

 Quince, and the other with trees on the natural stock. The 

 first year all did alike well, the only difference being that the 

 trees on the natural stock had slightly the advantage in growth. 

 The second year the change was surprising. The growth of trees 

 on the Pear stock grew like wildings ; the Quince made a spurt at 

 growing, then stopped, and by midsummer the leaves became of 

 a sickly hue. I was puzzled. I thought the soil could not be dry, 

 or exhausted, because all had been heavily mulched with manure, 

 and the rainfall ample. I, however, made a close examination, 

 when to my astonishment— nay, bewilderment — the roots had as 

 it were taken the manurial mulching by force, for it was nothing 

 but roots, and all were as dry as if there had been no rain for 

 months. I at once set to work and put fresh soil over the old 

 mulching, watered freely, and then had the border well trodden 

 down. Of course there was no new wood growth that year, but 

 such fruit buds as are seldom seen. 



During the winter the border throughout was artificially 

 watered — soaked— and farmyard manure about six inches in 

 thickness was applied as a mulching. By the time that the trees 

 had opened flower, my mind was quite made up as to the merits 

 of the two stocks. The Quince, of course, won in a canter ; the 

 trees were full of flower. Their neighbours blossomed a little and 

 finished off their fruit well, but the favourites, theirs much better 

 and more of it. By way of illustration I have selected half-a- 

 dozen average examples of fruit that we have growing under exactly 

 similar conditions, the one on the Quince, the other on the Pear 

 stock, which will show better than any words of mine can 

 describe the merits of each. And now comes the rub : if the 

 Quince stock is best for nearly all varieties of Pears, what are 

 those cultivators to do that have not an adhesive soil in which 

 trees on this stock delight ? This was my predicament, for 1 had 

 the lightest of light loams to deal with. But it did not frighten 



