COMMON MISTAKES IN FRUIT CULTURE. 
321 
while in private gardens a dozen subjects, with perhaps opposite require- 
ments, are crowded into one house, and where the surplus fruit from 
private gardens is sold it is useless to send the inferior examples to 
market. 
It is often a cause of failure when over-strong or over- stimulating 
manures are called into use to make up for slovenly preparation either in 
thinning, mulching, or planting. 
Patience is often severely tried by adverse seasons ; for instance, an 
amateur once called me in to consult, and complained of the poor quality 
of the fruit in his garden. It was a very exceptionally cold and wet 
season. I assured him that he had the best of varieties, and that a more 
generous season would give him all he desired in the point of quality. 
He was, however, a type of those who ask much advice, and then act on 
their own wisdom ; for he sent elsewhere and had all his trees cut back 
and regrafted, and I may be pardoned for saying that he not only lost 
tw^o years, but the very same varieties were grafted on again, simply because 
there were none better. It is in all cases requisite to wait a cycle of 
years before one can form a correct judgment. Many hundreds of pounds 
have been sacrificed in this way by market growers rooting up bush fruits, 
and by regrafting on supposed inferior varieties, which a little better 
culture would have made profitable. 
Cultivation. — How many of our orchards are literally starved to death ! 
Animals are turned in them to eat the grass, but they are never fed with 
good nitrogenous food, and consequently all which should mature the 
tree roots is lost. Many a worn-out orchard has been quite recovered by 
feeding and fatting sheep in it, and a timely dressing of artificial manure 
has helped both young and old orchards, when combined with a due 
thinning out of the boughs. 
Purchase of Trees. — I must say a few words as to this. Hundreds of 
large buyers have lamented that they first started with trees purchased 
at auctions, which may or may not be true to name ; are often " dragged 
up" by inexperienced men, and planted by the same class of labourers. 
I cannot too strongly advise all buyers to place their orders with any 
thoroughly respectable firm who grow what they sell ; to be ready to give 
a fair price for their trees ; and when they do not themselves know the 
best varieties for their soil and locality, to place themselves in the hands 
of the dealers. There are numbers of first-class fruit nurseries up and 
down the country, and it matters little where they are bought, provided 
the trees are clean, healthy, and well ripened. Change of soil is an ex- 
ploded myth, because, if the trees are sound and well rooted, they are 
bound to succeed. Many folk decide on the varieties they will purchase 
from specimen fruits which they see at exhibitions and on the market 
boards. In the former case much may have been grown under quite excep- 
tional circumstances, and in the latter case sellers often label fruit with a 
popular but altogether erroneous name. Although this paper is mainly 
intended for amateurs, I cannot omit to remark that one of the most 
serious mistakes on the part of market growers in the past has been the 
planting of too many varieties, and thus a steady sale of any one variety 
which meets with approval cannot be kept up. For market purposes at 
least fifty trees of a variety should be planted, and three hundred is better. 
