Hints on Vegetable and Fruit Farming. 
97 
from the graft, and has thirty-one apples upon it of fine size 
and lovely colour, and bore half this number last year (Fig. 2). 
That these apple-bushes are profitable goes without saying, and 
it is believed that they would be immensely profitable if culti- 
vated upon a large scale, either by themselves or with goose- 
berries and currants. They are suitable for tenants, as paying 
at once, bearing removal ; in fact, being benefited by being lifted 
occasionally. Bushes of this kind that were transplanted last 
March were full of rosy apples in October. Very little pruning 
is necessary for bushes, and they may be cultivated most pro- 
fitably in the gardens of farms, as they take up little space, and 
their fruit is usually well-grown, and but little attention to 
them is necessary. It would be well if farmers would grub up 
the wide-spreading, rarely-bearing fruit-trees of common kinds, 
which take up so much space in their gardens, and in the cus- 
tomary orchards near their houses, and plant bushes or pyramids 
which would be highly ornamental and certainly profitable. A 
little pruning and pinching the shoots is all that is required. 
Their prices range from Is. QJ. to 25. Qd. each. But planters 
must have a guarantee from the nurseryman that they are bond 
Jide Paradise stocks and not crab-stocks. Everything depends 
upon the stocks in these as in other fruit-trees. 
With regard to the demand for apples, it is very great and 
increasing. Within the last few years a demand has arisen even 
for the most common apples for mixing with other fruit for jam — 
to serve as " stock " in fact. Dessert apples of good colour and 
flavour are always most saleable. Consumers of such fruit well 
know what high prices they have to give for it, even in the most 
plentiful seasons. In short, it cannot too strongly be iterated 
that a wide field is open to occupiers and owners of land and 
the possessors of the humblest garden for the culture of apple- 
trees according to the best systems ; and that by planting well- 
selected, well-raised trees, either half-standards or pyramids, or 
espaliers, or cordons, or bushes, a quick return may be ensured. 
Peae-TEEES are more delicate than apple-trees ; their blos- 
soming is earlier, and therefore at a more critical season, while 
they do not bear extremely hard winters so well. 
Pear-trees are largely cultivated in East Kent and Gloucester- 
shire upon grass and in plantations, and in Herefordshire and 
W orcestershire upon grass. There is no reason why their culti- 
vation, and especially of the finest sorts,, should not be largely 
extended in all but, perhaps, the most northern counties of 
England. Fine-grown pears always are in great request, at 
lull prices, at least to consumers. 
The methods of planting, of protecting, of the general manage- 
ment, and pruning are very similar to those described in the 
VOL. XVIII.— s. S. H 
