September io, 



GARDENERS' 



MAGAZINE. 



597 



New Books. 



w«*h nn a Kentish Fruit Farm. By A Practical Man. (George Bunyard and 

 W t Zl\ Nurseries, Maidstone.) Price is.-The name of the author of this 

 ^•^S Ejb5 Messrs. G. Bunyard and Co. state in the preface that the 

 bf ^ffwere contributed week by week to the South Eastern Gazette during 1897, 

 ZZZ their merit they acquired the copyright for the purpose of publish- 

 ed a * d ? hus place th F / ^formation they contain at the 



* 1 nd of nuiito of cultivators of fruit and vegetables. The work 



Cm Z described as a diary of commercial horticulture for the year, and as the 

 ^rhor i iSlly conversant with the cultivation of both fruit and vegetables, and 

 S» Acquainted with the metropolitan and other markets he has given much 

 tfoSn of immense value to the cultivator of these crops for market. As 

 SSg the character of the work, we make a few extracts which relate to 

 seasonable subjects. 



Writing under date of August 31, the author says :— 



"This has been a week of rather bad weather for gathering and marketing. 

 Although we have not had any extensive rainfall, the general conditions have been 

 wet enough to hinder picking operations considerably. The careful fruit grower 

 will never gather his produce when wet, and when we get frequent showers almost 

 every day it will be readily understood how trying is the position. A good soaking 

 wet dav and fine weather afterwards is much preferable. The fruit has been 

 gathered, as, of course, it must when ready, but the trouble of getting it must have 

 been considerably increased. 



M Apples and plums are the chief interest just now. It is the season for pears, 

 but this year they are conspicuous by their absence. Apples and plums are 

 coming to hand more plentifully than we have had them all the year, apples 

 especially. The markets have been quite full enough during the last few days for 

 the good of the trade. A great many growers are anxious to pick all the fruit 

 possible before hop-picking commences, and no doubt this is the prime cause of 

 the excessive sendings. This week will see most people busy with hops, and I 

 shall then look for prices to improve. There have been several days of high winds 

 to blow apples down. This is also a very common cause of a cheap day or two. 

 After a wind everyone has more or less fruit that must be picked up and sold 

 immediately. 



" Plums and damsons are maintaining their prices well. The Victoria plum, 

 one of the best and also one of the most popular among growers, is now in full 

 season. The demand is very good, and the bulk of the fruit is of excellent quality. 

 The thin crop has enabled the plums to grow out beyond theii usual size. A few 

 lots one sees — probably from some poor farm or from trees that have been heavily 

 laden— are, however, of poor size and blighted appearance. The hot weather 

 must have been very trying for trees carrying a big load. A good plan with this 

 nriety, and one practised by some of the largest growers, is to make two samples 

 when packing, just as is done with apples. The best are then worth from 6d. to 

 l*. more than ordinary samples, and the seconds almost as much, as they are 

 generally sold to jam makers, to whom size is not of importance. 



"Damsons are undergoing a unique experience; they have jumped from 

 being, a year ago, quite the outcasts of the trade, to probably the most sought after 

 of any of our home-grown fruit of the season. The excitement to buy black currants 

 jady in the year was somewhat similar, but just at present I think the attention 

 bestowed upon damsons is keener. The imports of foreign plums generally affect 

 damsons very much, and so far this year the foreigners have not sent any appre- 

 ciable quantity. There is plenty of time yet, the month of September being their 

 fullest time, but I do not anticipate that damson growers have anything to fear as 



P r ice falling now. There are a great many contracts out for the fruit 

 •good prices, and I rather think the contracts exceed the crop. 



4 The lesson growers ought all to learn from this season's prices is to make a 

 »g effort to get a crop next year. No doubt bad prices will come again, and 



P°*loly next year for some fruits, lint the nrnsnpnr fnr iam-mal^rc' crnflMc o-nr^H - 



■b^T" l , di supply at tne time rules tne price, out tne jam manufacturers 

 with j »|P season of l8 97 a great deal short of what they could have done 

 jjg 1 and W1 " ln consequence be good buyers another year, let the crop be ever 50 



v crv Ja° b ^ filberts have suffered a reverse during the week. The supply is 

 GtanP ed .» and 1 su PPOse the same cause applies to them as to apples, 

 their hn T , a , nxious to £ et a certain percentage of them off before getting busy in 

 therefor? 11 Jt is Very difficuIt to kee P cob-nuts from the petty thief, and 

 come hL e /P° se T d Pwces, outsides, &c, have to be gathered before the pickers 



•» c u °wn lrom London Thi'c r^n,, Ka fV.« ~f fi !.,«. • *i 



many 



huk- ? l ample should have brown d P s to the husks > °*> setter still, 

 ^cd eelm a er ' but those comin S at P resen t have no suspicion of the 

 nw grower t y heat if lefc a few days in the Phages A great many 

 in with his fn , n? many lnto a blsket - 1 have even se en a man treading them 

 ^ are the m fl C ? urse this P ressure bruises them terribly, and the tighter 

 and thl C y at ' ^ uts P ac ked in this wav come out like wet. warm 

 <3«i«SiL2? F 0 *** *<»d« trade for t 



■« £« them n„Vf° /*"-"•> »uu growers are uusy nop-picKing so that they can- 



f^ps, but S T • 1 sha11 look for the P rice to harden » not v «y much 



*•» ttasnn V7 , y a ltt,e - Tfa e prospects for selling them are extremely good 



. 1 a na when thoxr u t i . .-. 3 «? 



— - ******* ' ' "v-u wu-uuw L 1 1 



busy hop-picking so that they can 



nen they will keep a little time I feel confident the northern 



5* 



rr-~> ^a. w per uuMiei , ocuonas, 2S. oa. to 3s. oa. ; Dest 



• .-vu Pl, lw , per i ; others > Is - 3d. to 2s. Best pears, 5s. ; common 

 ^6d,n^r^ir iu ^{ test sorts, 53. 6d. to 7s. Damsons, 5s. Gages, 7s. to 



filberts, 2j^d. ; cobs, 3d. per lb. Potatos, 3s. 6d. to 4s. 6d. 



_ P*r half. 



**to marled ^TM f " Growers are n °w beginning to send filberts in a green 

 ^■ped.onp'mi „ UU 1 earl >: to . do so y ct - The kernels are not uniformly 



*fiiidirii:_ g^. 8 !^^™ marketing of cobs and filberts, the following 



wuket. 



I^'y^e is° mT;n nut fU lo eat " The ^ cro P ol nut7that we un^ 



tK a » a" " . Kin S growers too eaeer to be at them. I would remind my 



toil f ? l P'^e of the hi* 2 P r ^P hes y that tne y &o to forty before Christ- 

 23 of their rT V \ C ° b nut y rowtrs > a « a rule, do iheir utmost to 



SStt ytar 1 P tM u y the Way tbey 5end U ro market - 1 said a 



1 W chiefl. ™ and 1 think ic will bear repeating. The 



u is that or sending big consignments by jerks 



he aid h^frl W P r hearS nuts are sellin S a ,ittle better than the y have been ; 

 market when ^T™ F 0 *^ S et a few hands to g ether and send a to 

 down! D 1 reSult) markets are flooded for a time and prices go 



frenerf] !rZr° r i S WiU show how badly this rising and falling operates on the 



rWn !' ^ S l°° n ™ our friend has sent his ton of cob s a ^d the price is 

 T' sayt «> 3d., he stops sending till things improve! This is a very wise 

 policy, no doubt, but how about the buyer ? He has been buying at the reduced 

 price, has been doing rather well out of them, and comes to market quite pre- 

 pared to buy as many or possibly more than he did before. But he finds the 

 reduced supply has forced the price up to 4d. (a penny is a big rise). This 

 completely upsets his calculations as to the quantity he can sell, so he buys a few 

 only. Meantime the grower again has heard of the rise, and sends another big 

 load ; result, another glut and fall in values, even to a point lower than before, 

 l his is no overdrawn picture, but is actually how the trade has gone every season 

 lor some time. If growers would send regularly, say, three times a week, just 

 about as many as the size of their growths warrant, it would vastly improve trade, 

 interested"" 65 * ^ ultimatel y red ound to the permanent good of everyone 



The gathering and storing of fruits receives, as a matter of course, a full share 

 of attention, and with reference to the first of these two operations, the following 

 suggestions are made : — 



" It will soon be time to think about and make preparations for the ingather- 

 ing of the keeping kinds of apples and pears. This part of the fruit-grower's 

 business appears to me to be quite one of the most important operations in the 

 yearly round, and yet it is one that is oftentimes, I may say generally, done in a 

 most slip-shod way. Good fruit that has been allowed to hang on the trees and 

 become well coloured and ripened will not stand being gathered in sack-pockets 

 —the usual method— and ruthlessly shot into a heap. I have often written about 

 this matter of gathering storage fruit, and I propose devoting a portion of my next 

 letter to the subject. My advice will then come at the precise time when this 

 work is going on. King Pippins in exposed or forward situations m xy be gathered 

 now. I think the majority of them will be left another week or ten days, but it 

 is by no means a bad plan to secure a portion of one year's growth of this par- 

 ticular kind, lay them fairly thick to induce rapid ripening, and thus get them 

 sent to market before the general run of the Kings are ready. There is always a good 

 opening for coloury samples of this apple in October. An open lodge, or any 

 temporary protection in the orchard, serves as well for this purpose as a good 

 building, as the fruit must all be sold before there is any risk of harm from frosts. 

 It is not necessary to take such elaborate care of King Pippins gathered in this 

 way for a rapid colouring as should be meted out to Wellingtons and Blenheims. 

 They will take no harm from the gathering sack process, and they can be laid in a 

 heap straight from the trees without being examined for maggoty and diseased 

 specimens. They should be laid thickly, say, three or four feet in the centre, have 

 no covering immediately on the top in order to allow the heat plenty of room to 

 evaporate, have good roof protection so that no rain can come on the in, and not 

 too much air. In this way the apples will soon set up a rapid heat, and in about 

 three weeks from the time of laying down will be ready for market, and will 

 probably realise quite as much money per bushel as the later and more carefully- 

 handled gatherings. It should be quite understood that I do not advocate the 

 foregoing method if the fruit is meant to be stored any length of time. 



" Good apples this year promise to sell at values that will pay for extra trouble, 

 no matter how costly it may appear on the face of it. As I said in my last letter, 

 the gathering flap pocket so generally used should be discarded when gathering 

 the best fruit, and a small basket, such as is used for cherry picking, substituted ; 

 one holding from three to four gallons will be found the most handy size. The 

 basket must be lined with a piece of old sacking or some similar soft substance, and 

 have a hook attached with which to hang it on to the steps of the ladder, 

 or possibly a limb of the tree. The first few fruitc picked should be very 

 carefully placed in the basket, not dropped in, and throughout the whole opera- 

 tion the picker should take care his basket is never violently jolted about, or, in 

 fact, anything done to make the fruits jolt over one another. When full the small 

 baskets should be emptied into bushel or half-bushel sieves, the same care being 

 used. The apples should be placed, and carefully run through the hands, not 

 shot, in the sieves. With Wellingtons especially every apple should be sep irately 

 handled in transferring them." 



On the all-important question of storage the author observes : " For conveying 

 fruit 'o the store a spring van only should be used. A good bed of wheat straw - 

 none other good enough for the pur pose^-should be made to store apples in, 

 Jare S taken to put an extra thickness wherever there is the least sign of a 

 draught Sat would admit frost later on. Everything depends upon the next s ep. 

 Seldom is enough pains taken to lay the fruit down properly The prevailing 

 n^bTSgS basket straight into the store and tip the apples as gently 

 practice is 10 or & £J Thig treatme nt is not good enough. The 



^^£&SA the heap ; the baskets should r>e brought to them 

 proper way f* w . b [ exarnine d. The sound ones should 



K Dd ^ \t ^mh^ ^d M diseased or faulty ones in a separate heap. This 

 be put in the mam ^^1^^^ but it will be found that it can be done 



may seem ,a ^2^^^^^^^ fruit wiU ^ i^hiljmgs. 



^S^^^^z of , » in r red ' and thc heap of sound 



„„, keep ^^"XXSi-d *+* « 



"A dark P^«^2Knt fruit has been laid upon the oast-house floors so 

 raised, ^^^^Z^dont well there. £01 keeping a long time the 

 common in ^^g[^ M y 9 two feet to two and a-half feet being ample, 

 fruit should not ^^^l^ sta ge of sweating is reached, and if laid very 

 The thicker the heap the soone J , * Kor this re ason it is good to 

 thick apples will not ^survive 1W P y * { ^ ^ Q nQ 



i^MBl frtTivered tili y one is compelled to do so to protect it from 



le of 



harm iSS handling,, and at the same time they 



account should the mm « - mojt ^ of rf our ^ t0 uUe 



frost. Wellington app 1« are ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ q{ ^ ^ 



able varieties. 



r would specially caution growers who have any crop of this soit 

 roTakel^aT'pains with then, Prospect, for the selling of such apples are pro- 

 bablv bitter than wc have known for very many years. 



bably better m , v . two articles dealing with cultural matters and market 



K In ^iTon of the tes" market fruits are given, and, representing as they 

 aftairs, selection, of the w ^ ^ Bunyatd and Co>> they 



do the combined I ^°*^J» al i east twenty times the cost of the whole work. 



are to 



„ r„xmn\ head gardener to R. Alston, Esq., 

 Grange, Wavettree, Liverpool. 



Harold Hall, 

 Esq., Dudlow 



