102 
THE FLORAL lYOIlLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
FHUIT TEEES FOR VILLA GARDENS. 
I.— THE APPLE. 
EX JOHN SCOTT, 
Merriott Nurseries, Crew kerne, Soniei-stt. 
mj “ Orchtrdist ” the lists of hardy fruits are so long, 
and the directions for planting, training, pruning, etc., 
etc., so various, that the owner of a small garden may 
confess without shame that he would be glad of some 
briefer and simpler advice on the production of useful 
fruits. In my own behalf, I must say tliat my book includes every 
detail of fruit production, and therefore the owner of a small garden 
is as fully provided for as the owner of a great domain, or the 
speculator who intends to grow fruit on a large scale for market. 
It should, however, be in my power to contribute to the Feoeal 
WoELD an article calculated to promote the production of fruit in 
the villa garden, and I begin with the apple, because it is indis- 
pensable and is the easiest of all fruits to grow. That we do not 
grow enough, is evident by our imports of apples from America and 
the continent of Europe ; that we might grow all we want, and even 
spare some for export, any one will believe who has seen my planta- 
tions, or who has in the season made notes in any good private 
garden where the apple has had justice done it. As a rule, this 
hardy, useful, and elegant fruit is most unjustly treated, and takes 
revenge on its owner by becoming sterile, cankered, defiled with 
American blight, or clothed with injurious lichen. The best pre- 
ventative for these is high cultivation. 
It may appear to some readers that this is a bad time to advise 
on the subject ; but I think it the best time, for those who contem- 
plate planting next autumn have the summer before them for getting 
the laud ready for early planting : or to put the case another way, they 
are in a position, as regards time, to do the thing properly, and the 
success of a plantation of fruit trees depends very much indeed on 
the way in which the first step was taken. Now, I shall suppose you 
have a piece of grass land on which you intend to plant apples. It 
is time to begin nou\ and my way of beginning would be to trench 
the ground two spits deep, and take off a crop of potatoes. A 
good sound loam would do this well and be ready for the apple 
trees in October, but a ])oor soil would require to be aided with a 
good coat of nianure, laid between the top and bottom spit as the 
work went on, the grass spit being of course put at the bottom of 
the trenches. I would order my trees in September at latest, and I 
would plant in October, remembering what our editor has told us, 
that trees planted in autumn grow without asking, but trees planted 
in spring want persuading and coaxing. 
As to the selection of trees, I should for myself prefer bush or 
pyramid trees, grafted on the proper Paradise Slock ; but if I wmnted 
a few large trees for embellishing a grass enclosure, or to improve 
a shrubbery border. Standards on the Crab Stock would be preferable. 
