January 14, 1892. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
19 
destroying the appearance of the former. Frequently—in fact, 
generally—the fruit is badly packed and in a wretched condition 
when it arrives in the market, much worse than when it leaves the 
grower. One other reason, and an important one, is the fault of 
glutting the market. At gathering time they are rushed in as they 
are taken from the trees, instead of storing all those that will keep 
for a time. Hence the poor prices home-grown fruit often com¬ 
mands. Fruit must arrive in the market in good condition to find 
a ready sale, be prepossessing in appearance, and of good quality, 
then foreign produce need not be feared. 
Since fruit growing has become an important question,_ and 
commanding the foremost attention of horticulturists, there is no 
lack of information relating to some of the most important matters 
connected with this subject. There is considerable anxiety to 
renovate existing trees, and to substitute productive varieties 
that will bear fruit freely, and of a suitable nature to find a 
ready sale. The question that is most important is. Are the old 
trees that form many of the existing orchards worth renovation ? 
If so, what means would be most suitable ? The general opinion 
is, that trees of unsuitable kinds that are young, or approaching 
middle age only, clean, healthy, and full of vigour, might be 
profitably cut down and regrafted. Trees of this nature would 
furnish good heads, and no doubt in the course of a few years 
would yield profi'able crops of fine fruits. But even this process 
opens up a question of some magnitude, that appears to be lost 
sight of by those who recommend these methods of procedure. 
The question to which I allude is that of the stock and its influence 
on the tree and its fruit, but for the present this must be left. 
We shall make no great progress in fruit growing if we waste time 
in trying to put young heads on to old trees that are worn 
out. There is a limit to the life of fruit trees. Decline, decay, 
and eventually death are inevitable, and must come sooner or 
later, and therefore it is a waste of land, of time, and energy to 
attempt to impart new life to trees whose energies are flagging 
past recovery, and whose decline is a certainty. New growth might 
prolong life for a few years by calling into activity new roots, 
provided decay had not commenced. If we begin by trying to 
renovate old trees wei shall certainly begin at the wrong end 
towards the attainment of the object we have in view. My 
advice is, make new plantations, and when they come into bearing 
clear the ground of old useless trees, and crop it with something 
else until its fertility has been thoroughly restored. _ I strongly 
condemn the clearing of ground of old trees and planting of fresh 
ones in the same place. Under such circumstances the best 
results could scarcely be expected unless considerable expense were 
entailed in the preparation of the soil. 
No hard and fast rule can be laid down in the preparation of 
the land previous to planting. The texture of the soil, its depth, 
the subsoil, and the manner in which it is drained must guide those 
to whom this work is entrusted to a very great extent. Thorough 
draina<re is important. Its value cannot be over-estimated if good 
result8°are to follow. The well-being of the tree depends largely 
on having thoroughly drained land in which to grow. Thorough 
drainage insures a higher temperature in the soil, and often pre- 
serves^the trees from canker. The value of a deep fertile sod for 
fruit growing is of the first importance, and deep cultivation 
equally essential. The deeper the soil and the deeper it can be 
worked the better ; their roots can then penetrate sufficiently deep 
to hold them firmly in the ground, and insure them against suffer¬ 
ing by drought without evil consequences following. Land that 
has a depth of 18 inches or 2 feet of fertile soil, and can be trenched 
that depth, is in admirable condition for planting. Trenching 
would prove a costly operation in fruit culture on a large scale, and 
I am not sure in the end whether it would not pay to trench the 
soil thoroughly previous to planting ; but this depends largely on 
what trees are planted. In any case large stations on similar 
principles could be made. All soils will not bear trenching, and 
more harm than good would result in a number of cases. Under 
any circumstances I do not advise casting the surface or fertile soil 
into the bottom of the trench and bringing the unfertile to the 
surface. This would do very well if the ground was cropped 
afterwards for two or three years to render it fertile. 
Under any circumstances only as much of the lower soil should 
be brought to the surface as can by exposure to the weather be 
duly pulverised ; therefore, what is known as bastard trenching is 
advised. When large plantations are to be made we should prefer 
to carry out this work with the plough. The first furrow would 
be deeper than usual, so as to bring to the surface a little of the 
lower soil. The lower soil would be loosened to the depth of 6 or 
7 inches by the aid of the subsoil plough. The soil should be well 
broken up about the roots of the trees, and if the remaining surface 
is left rough the weather will act upon it so that it can be freely 
and easily worked in spring. Heavy land is difficult to reduce, and 
requires considerable attention in its preparation before it is really 
in a suitable condition for planting. The greater portion of the 
orchards are planted on land that is ploughed only in the ordiniry 
way, and the furrows guide the planter where to place the trees. 
Trees do very well even then, but they are worthy of a better 
preparation. 
Land that has been well manured for a previous crop is the 
best for planting on, so that it will not be necessary to work 
or plough manure into the soil ; in fact, under no circumstances 
do I advise this. To place about the roots of each tree a barrowful 
or two of prepared compost, as we are in the habit of doing in 
private gardens, is out of the question. A quantity of manure in 
close proximity to the roots would, in my opinion, do more harm 
than good. If the land required manure the best method would 
be to spread it on the surface about the trees after planting 
or preceding growth. It would then work down to the roots in a 
natural manner. There would be very little waste of the valuable 
properties of the manure, which would take place by any method 
of incorporating it with the soil previous to planting. 
Soil rendered rich by heavy dressings of manure is liable^ to 
promote strong luxuriant growth that has no chance of being 
thoroughly matured. This cannot be an advantage, but the 
reverse” although the effect may not be visible for some years. 
I am strongly inclined to believe that the seeds of canker may 
in many cases be traced to the early stages of the plant’s 
growth, perhaps before the trees are planted. The stability and 
health of trees, to my mind, depend largely upon the condition of 
the wood they make, whether thoroughly matured or otherwise. 
Trees that make moderate growth should build up a healthy, 
robust constitution, all else being satisfactory for them, while in 
those that make luxuriant growth we should anticipate disease 
sooner or later in some form or another, and the most probable is 
canker. For light soils a heavy dressing of clay would prove of 
greater advantage to the trees and permanent improvement of the 
land than heavy dressings of manure during the first, or few first 
years after planting. It is a mistake to suppose that land practically 
occupied with fruit trees needs no attention in manuring after 
the trees are once planted. They should be kept in health and 
vigour after they commence fruit bearing, and this can only be 
accomplished by the application of manure occasionally, and we 
know of no better means of applying it than by spreading^ it_ on 
the surface. There is no more waste in applying it on this principle 
than by any other method. 
Not half the attention necessary to keep the ground free from 
weeds is devoted to this important work. We observed during the 
past season several orchards of young trees practically overrun 
with rank weeds. If those who manage orchards on these negli¬ 
gent principles could but realise the amount of waste that was 
going on they would endeavour to keep the land clean. If fruit- 
gromng is to be conducted as a profitable concern all the plant 
food available in the soil should be carefully preserved for the 
trees, and no useless crop allowed to rob the ground of valuable 
food that, sooner or later, will be needed for building up the tree 
and the production of fine fruits. The fact must not be lost 
sight of that if fine fruit is to be produced that will find a ready 
sale, the cultivator must not be content with puny growth annually ; 
but the energy and vigour of the tree must be maintained, and 
then fine fruit and satisfactory returns will result.—W m. Bardnev. 
(To be continued.) 
NOTES ON GLADIOLI. 
I AM sure the many readers of the Journal who admire the 
princely Gladiolus enjoy and appreciate, as I do, the notes con¬ 
tributed on this flower by “ D., DcalC whose ripe experience makes 
me diffident that the remarks of a comparative tyro may be of 
little interest. The notes on pages 520 and 536 lead me, however, 
to think that experiences in the south-west of Scotland may 
perhaps be worthy of publication. 
The season has, upon the whole, been a good one, although the 
corms have ripened slowly, and on January 1st I just finished 
harvesting mine. We have had but little frost; but the dull, 
wet weather seems to have retarded the ripening process, and 
even yet some are no more than ready for lifting. My losses have 
been almost nil, and I must , express my sympathy with your con¬ 
tributor in having lost so many. The corms are, as a rule of a 
fair size, firm and solid, but not equal in size to those or 18J0. 
The most unsatisfactory in this respect are some of the h re noli 
varieties. My experience has been that the corms produced by 
newly imported varieties are not so good as those produced at^r 
the variety has been grown in my garden for a few years. Un 
mv dry soil I find it beneficial to sprinkle Clay s fertiliser oi 
Amies’ manure over the soil, and afterwards to give a good soaking 
