130 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



earliest choose either Potts' Seedling, Echlinville, Grenadier, or 

 Lord Grosvenor. Either of these will serve for September and half 

 of October. I do not think earlier Apples than these are needed, as 

 windfalls will supply abundance of Cooking Apples during the 

 last half of August and the beginning of September. For your 

 second Apple, from mid-October to December, choose Warner's 

 King (which makes a very pretty graceful half-bush half-tree upon 

 the lawn, if planted in bush form and allowed to extend) or Stirling 

 Castle. For the third or Christmas Apple have either Tower of 

 Glamis,Walthdm Abbey, or, if you do not mind waiting a few years, 

 Blenheim Orange, which, although it does not bear in a young 

 state, is excellent either for cooking or dessert. The fourth, to 

 carry you well through January, should be Lane's Prince Albert in 

 bush form, or as an alternative Wellington (a grand Apple where 

 it does well, but on my light soil it is one mass of canker) or New 

 Northern Greening, though this is said to split and spot on some 

 soils. The fifth, for February and March, should be either Bram- 

 ley's Seedling, Newton Wonder, or Alfriston. If you can manage a 

 sixth, have Bismarck or Golden Noble, either of which makes a 

 very pretty small standard tree, and would help your second Apple 

 to fill up November and December. For seventh I would have a 

 second out of the three I have named for the fifth place, so as to 

 make sure of late-keeping Apples ; and if an eighth be possible, 

 Lord Derby (in bush form), which is perhaps the loveliest of 

 all Apples when in bloom, would be sure to be acceptable, and 

 come into use between your first and second. I would strongly, 

 very strongly, urge eight varieties (in my own garden I have 

 ten), and if you can possibly manage a ninth try Annie Elizabeth, 

 the latest Apple of all, which keeps good up till May. In this 

 way, except for spring frosts, which no forethought can avoid, 

 you should have Apples the whole season through. 



It must be borne in mind, however, that Apples require well- 

 gathering and well-keeping. It is impossible to say exactly when 

 any one variety will be fit to gather ; it varies so with varying 

 seasons that to name a date would mislead as often as it guided 

 aright. They must be watched and tried from time to time from 

 the beginning of September onwards, and when they part easily 

 from the tree then they are fit to pick. 



In gathering, the fruits must be handled very carefully ; no 

 tumbling them into baskets, and no shooting them from one 



