394 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



AN AMATEUR'S EXPERIMENTS IN APPLE-GROWING 

 IN THE MIDLANDS. 



By G. O. Nicholson, F.R.H.S. 



In January 1898 I laid out and planted as an experimental orchard 

 a piece of land about 600 square yards in area, with 32 well-known 

 varieties of apples — two of each — and since 1901 I have kept careful 

 notes of the crop borne by each variety, and of the character of the 

 season, and I now place my experiences on record, as they may be of 

 some use to other amateurs. 



The ground consisted of part of an old pasture, and it was prepared 

 for planting by bastard trenching to the depth of about 20 inches, the 

 subsoil being heavy yellow clay. The situation faces south-west, 

 and is fairly well protected from north and north-east winds ; the 

 land falls slightly from north-east to south-west, having a natural 

 outfall for drainage in that direction through the existing land drains. 

 The elevation is about 350 feet above sea-level, as indicated on the 

 Ordnance Survey Map, and the district is South Leicestershire. 



The trees I planted were maidens grafted on Paradise stocks ; all 

 being dwarf bushes (except six standards), they were planted 9 feet 

 apart in parallel rows and came into bearing in 1900, but I did not 

 begin to keep any record of the crops borne until 1902. The trees 

 received no special treatment or manuring at the time of planting 

 or since, but they have been thoroughly cleansed once in three years 

 with Woburn winter wash during the winter months and also an occa- 

 sional grease banding. They are now in their prime, are in a clean 

 and healthy condition, and bear regularly, with the exceptions here- 

 after noted. They entirely fill the ground, and have to be kept from 

 overlapping by annual prunings. I have not been troubled much 

 with the usual pests. Signs of American bhght have occasionally 

 appeared, but I have taken care to check this at once by an applica- 

 tion of paraffin ; a few of the trees have shown signs of canker, 

 particularly * Red Astrachan ' and ' Ribston Pippin,' but not to any 

 great extent. The strongest growers and most reliable bearers have 

 been ' Bramley's Seedling ' and ' Warner's King ' amongst kitchen 

 varieties, and ' Irish Peach ' and * Worcester Pearmain ' of the 

 dessert varieties ; the only weak grower is ' Stirling Castle,' but I 

 am incHned to think that this is owing to the trees being some- 

 what weak samples. 



In the appended Tables it will be seen that of dessert varieties only 

 two out of ten produced small crops in more than five years out of 

 thirteen years, and in kitchen varieties only one out of seventeen 

 varieties during the same period. 



