360 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October 23, 1890. 
shaped pitchers about 6 or 8 inches long, and, as the name implies, are 
of a bright purple colour. 
S. variolaris .—This is well worth growing, and should be in every 
collection. The pitchers are peculiarly hooded, growing between 1 and 2 
feet long, and beautifully mottled. 
S. psittacina .—Quite distinct from any of the former in habit of 
growth. Instead of growing erect it produces its pitchers horizontally 
or spreading; the pitchers are light green with crimson veining, and are 
curiously hooked at the end, much resembling a parrot’s bill. 
S. rubra .—Also well worth growing if only for its flowers, which are 
blood red and deliciously fragrant like Violets. The pitchers of this 
species are not so showy as in many of the others, from a horticultural 
point of view, but where a collection is grown it well deserves a 
place. 
S. Chelsoni .—A beautiful hybrid of Messrs. Veitch’s raising. It is 
much in the w-ay of S. purpurea, which is one of the parents. The 
pitchers grow erect, of great substance, and very wide at the mouth, the 
colour being a bright red.—K. 
FRUIT FARMING FOR PROFIT—A CRITIQUE. 
Under the auspices of the British Fruit Growers’ Association much 
information has been diffused within the last few years on the profitable 
cultivation of hardy fruits. Conferences have been held in some of the 
most important fruit growing districts and centres of fruit consumption. 
One good effect of these conferences is that they tend to an interchange 
of views between practitioners. The papers, by experienced or eminent 
pomologists, are conveyed into every nook and corner of the kingdom 
through the instrumentality of the horticultural press. Sound reliable 
information is thereby conveyed to many minds, and although the 
teaching may be that of a lifetime it does not always carry conviction, 
for it must not be disguised that there exists a prejudice against 
preachers for profit, but it is a misfortune to become so blinded by 
prejudice as not to at least search into the facts if they cannot see or 
appreciate the work that is being done in behoof of the common weal. 
Before me is Mr. Bunyard’s work, “ Fruit Farming for Profit,”* papers 
read at various places, with prefixes, addendas, and illustrations, together 
forming a handsomely bound volume of 137 pages. In the introduction 
a survey is taken of foreign competition, and its bearing on British 
grown fruit, in which the whole thing is summed in a sentence—viz., 
in “ Market growing for profit we shall have to grow such kinds as will 
pay. That is what the Yankees do, and what our colonists do—throw 
overboard their old ideas.” But they do it in a very different manner 
to the old countiy folks. They know exactly what the consumer wants, 
and they set to work to meet that want. Instead of Ribston Pippins 
they place the glowing Northern Spy in the market, and supplant Goff’s 
by Baldwins. They have found out that land that will grow a bushel 
of Crabs will grow three bushels of the choicest Apples. Yea, as Mr. 
Bunyard puts it, “ we must have an eye to those sorts which crop freely 
and bear regularly. We should aim at quality and colour in dessert 
Apples and Pears, and weight or size in kitchen Apples,” but why not 
aim at colour in kitchen Apples as well as weight and size 1 A fine 
looking Apple always takes the “shine” out of a sour looking one. 
The author has a poor opinion of chalk as a sub-strata for fruit 
trees, and sandy soil is not recommended, yet a reservation is made 
in favour of a good depth of soil over chalk, and a brick earth sub¬ 
soil in the case of sandy soil. “ Most of the land around Maidstone 
is on the lower greensand, and suitable for all kinds of fruit.” That 
is a very interesting fact, as it shows the value of the fossiliferous 
formations to fruit growers, and equally is the further fact “ that for 
general fruit nothing can be better than the very deep brick earth that 
is found in the valley overlooking the Medway from Chatham to Canter¬ 
bury.” In fruit growing there is nothing like a foundation. The green¬ 
sand is rich in phosphates, the brick earth contains an inexhaustible 
supply of potash. Plums do well on the Kentish rag, indeed all fruits 
down to small fruits and Nuts. In the flinty lands of East Kent where 
the soil is rather heavy, fine Cherries and Apples are grown, and in “the 
heavy lands in the Weald of Kent, where there is a more or less loamy 
soil resting on the clay, we find some of their finest Apple orchards, the 
weight and colour of the fruit being remarkable.” Indeed, the soil 
seems to team with fertility all through Kent; even “ the stone slattery 
land in the neighbourhood of Orpington and the Crays, where it over¬ 
lays and mixes with the gravel, is remarkably suitable for Pears, Apples, 
and Plums.” Very wet land, but not flooded, will grow Black Currants, 
and the chalk will grow Strawberries. “ The Boughton, Linton, Chart, 
and Sutton Hills are clothed with fruit. Well may the author say that 
“ this fact stares us in the face—that with care and proper drainage 
fruit is grown ” in this garden of England. Mr. Bunyard says, “ As 
fruit succeeds in the garden while it fails in the orchard in the same 
soils, it appears in many cases only a matter of cultivation.” That is 
just what makes all the difference. Some fail because the soil is bad, 
others through failing to drain it, all from bad cultivation, for there is 
not a soil in this country that will not, by drainage or other necessary 
improvement, grow some fruit profitably. “ Soil that is naturally 
drained is even preferable to land that requires drainage, for obvious 
reasons, not the least is a saving of some £5 per acre ; ” but it does not 
necessarily follow that the naturally drained soil is as good for fruit 
culture as land requiring draining. Naturally drained soils are often 
the most unremunerative from their poverty and porosity, and the cost 
* Frederick Bunyard, Week Street, Maidstone. 
in making and keeping them fertile with manure is far greater than 
investing in drains and opening up a mine of untold wealth. Bleak 
hills and uplands are to be avoided for fruit culture, and we are also 
advised not to plant too near a river, stream, or lake. Shelter is of 
such importance “ that too much cannot be said. Hedges should be 
allowed to get up 6 to 10 feet; ” but why such a ravenous earth 
grabber as the Wych Elm is recommended it is difficult to tell. 
Better far is “ the fashion, and a good one, to plant the Cluster 
Damson.” Land, it is stated, “ which grew Birch, Beech, and other 
trees of low value,” has given good results when planted with Plum, 
Damson, and Apple trees, Gooseberry and Currant bushes, Raspberry 
canes and Strawberry plants, which pay well.” Then why bother with 
the profitless shelter? Damsons are as hardy as Sloes, and “these 
break the wind and screen the other trees, fruit heavily, and give a 
profitable return.” 
Manures are carefully and judiciously treated, and those are advised 
which are readily obtainable in the immediate neighbourhood of towns 
or from the coast. Wool waste, rags, fur clips, &c, sprats, London dung, 
shoddy, even road scrapings are laid under contribution ; but the light 
manures are most in request, through the “ readiness with which they 
can be placed on the land ; being in bags one can be dropped here and 
there, and spread before the diggers.” The first three are described as 
powerful manures or stimulants, decomposing slowly, and it is men¬ 
tioned that “ well-fed pigs, or sheep and lambs fed with oilcake, are a 
great help to free growth, and consequently good fruit.” This, in “ old 
orchards ”—one more proof that poverty is at the root of decrepit trees. 
A word of caution is given to those who have the means and oppor¬ 
tunity to use a large quantity of manure when starting a plantation. 
Very often trees are manured at start, and when they begin fruiting, 
and their demands for nutriment are greatest, they are left to starve. 
Mr Bunyard traces this to the too free use of stimulants in the early 
years, and mentions that trees forced into over-luxuriant growth have 
the wood unripe by winter, and it gets frozen, especially in Plums, and 
bough after bough has died off. The writer is “dead” on late growth. 
Caterpillar infestions lead thereto, that is one reason why they should 
not be allowed to infest the trees, “ mildew sets in, and following the 
leafstalk to the eyes of the shoots forms canker, which eats into the 
boughs, and in a few years changes a smiling plantation into a miser¬ 
able lot of cripples which never recover.” That is another explanation 
of canker, which seems to thrive all the same in soils which there has 
been too free of stimulants, and where the trees are made do without 
manure; but how manures applied in July or August can act other than 
as stimulants to late growth it is difficult to explain, except that it is 
advised not to use too strong manure, which, though indefinite, qualifies 
everything. 
Planting is treated very ably. Surface rooting is sought by planting 
high. “ Surface roots being those that nourish fruit.” It is mentioned 
that the chief mischief accruing to young trees arises from too deep 
striking of the large coarse roots, which, meeting with a badly drained 
or unsuitable subsoil, causes canker, and apparently healthy trees die 
back wholesale. Thus it seems the fruit grower has not matters all his 
own way, even in Kent. For all fruits planting in November is con¬ 
sidered the best time, and though planting in holes is had recourse to 
to save expense, it is clearly set forth that the cultivator would be 
amply repaid by having all land intended for cultivation either steam 
cultivated or trenched. 
Pruning receives a generous share of attention, and standard with 
half-standard fruit trees are not to receive any pruning at planting. 
In planting, page 19, it is recommended to “ Shorten coarse roots slightly 
with a sharp knife, and any injured cut clean away ; ” but the head is 
not to be cut until a year after planting. There is to be, however, a 
thinning of the shoots if necessary, leaving from three to seven of the 
best situated for forming a good symmetrical head. The winter follow¬ 
ing, preferably in February, the shoots are to be cut back to five or six 
buds. This causes a number of shoots to push, and these in July are to 
be thinned, and in winter to be cut back to 6 inches. This is to be 
practised for a few years, when the trees begin to bear on the old wood. 
Practice of that kind is found necessary, “ because some fruits, notably 
Manks Codlin, Stone’s, and Lord SuiEeld if left uncut form a mass of 
fruit buds and come into bearing, and never afterwards get beyond a 
mop-sized head. Some Pears and Plums have the same tendency.” “ In 
planting Cherries I (Mr. Bunyard) strongly advise planters to let them 
stand the first year without cutting at all (except the roots, as advised 
for Apples).” But in planting “ Plums (from the nature of their roots), 
if the planting is completed before Christmas, they may be pruned the 
first year of planting.” 
In the foregoing remarks on pruning the author is manifestly 
between two fires and knows not which way to run. Apples, Pears, 
Cherries, and some free-growing Plums have anything but fibrous roots- 
on the free stock. In transplanting trees of all kinds I have invariably 
found that the larger their heads the more roots were lost in trans¬ 
plantation, and that to prune the roots, only leaving the heads entire, was 
to court failure. Hollies that may be thirty or more years old transplant 
splendidly if their heads are cut proportionately to the reduction of the 
roots in lifting. Old Laurels start grandly dug up with a mere stump 
of root if the precaution is taken to cut off the head correspondingly, 
but lift them never so carefully retaining the heads and they will look 
very seedy, mostly showing their detestation of the rude treatment by 
dying back considerably or collapsing altogether. The rationale of the 
whole thing is very simple—a tree checked in its growth by transplanta¬ 
tion must have the balance restored between the roots and branches 
