128 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



gardener should be prepared at once to conform to his employer's 

 tastes. I was once told of a household where none of the family 

 liked Strawberries, and only a day or two ago I heard a young 

 lady say, when pressed a second time to take a piece of Pine- 

 apple, " But, indeed, I don't like it a little bit." It would be 

 folly in such case to grow Strawberries or Pines. Hence it is 

 impossible to lay down any hard-and-fast rule as to what kinds 

 of fruit should be grown in a small garden and what not. Each 

 case must be settled by itself. 



In the same way the proportion of the various kinds to one 

 another will depend to a great extent on the preferences of each 

 household. "When I came to my present garden I found fifty 

 Eed Currant bushes, occupying even more ground than was 

 devoted to the Easpberries ; and as I hold very strongly the 

 peculiar notion that Bed Currants were invented for only two 

 reasons, viz. (1) Currant jelly, with haunch of venison or 

 mutton, and (2) to utterly spoil Raspberry pies, I at once 

 reduced their number to ten, amply sufficient to make jelly, 

 and increased the proportion of the Raspberries, which to my 

 mind are, after Apples, the best cooking fruit we have. Some 

 people, again, love Quinces and Medlars, while others positively 

 dislike both. 



So that both the kinds themselves and the proportionate 

 breadths devoted to each can only be decided after consult- 

 ing the preferences— likes and dislikes — of the household. This, 

 however, will be true in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, 

 viz. that Cooking Apples are by far the most important fruit crop 

 in the garden. And setting aside individual cases, the order of 

 relative importance, from a household point of view, will pro- 

 bably be nearly this, viz. : 1, Cooking Apples ; 2, Cooking Plums ; 

 3, Gooseberries ; 4 Strawberries ; 5, Raspberries ; G, Red 

 Currants ; 7, Dessert Apples ; 8, Dessert Plums ; 9, Cherries ; 

 10, Black Currants; 11, Dessert Pears; 12, Stewing Pears; 

 13, Medlars ; 14, Quinces ; 15, Mulberries. I know that a very 

 large number of amateur gardeners will exclaim with horror at 

 my putting Dessert Pears so low down in the scale, but I do so 

 after the utmost consideration, being convinced that, whatever 

 may be the opinion of those many amateurs who make a hobby 

 of Pears (of whom I myself am one), the housekeepers would 

 by a large majority declare that they could more easily do 



