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September 8, 1392. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
207 
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MENTMORE REVISITED. 
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T EN years ago the writer paid a visit to Lord Rosebery’s beautiful 
English home in the fertile vale of Aylesbury, and after 
hearing Mr. J. Smith’s paper on Plums read at Chiswick and 
referred to on page 184 last week a desire was awakened to see 
the trees again. Ten years since they were small and supported by 
stakes, but the same trees are now self-supporting in more ways 
than one, for they need no stakes, and pay their way—that is, give 
a good return on the outlay which has been invested in the 
plantations and the cultural care bestowed on them. The progress 
they have made is altogether satisfactory, and if there is a finer 
example of orchard Plum culture in the kingdom it will be worth 
a long journey to inspect. Evidently the soil is naturally adapted 
to Plums, for fine old trees, especially of Damsons (with an under¬ 
growth of Aylesbury ducks), are growing round many a homestead. 
Probably the beautiful and fruitful condition of these suggested to 
the late Baron Meyer de Rothschild that he might both improve 
the appearance and increase the value of his estate by planting 
somewhat extensively. This was done, and done well, for Mr. Smith, 
then, and happily still, the gardener at Mentmore, is as sound a 
cultivator as Britain boasts, and the word failure has no place in his 
vocabulary. He is not the man to work without thinking, nor to 
undertake what is impracticable, and, after seeing his way clearly, 
he does his work thoroughly, and waits watchfully yet confidently 
for the issue. 
It is a question of somewhat long waiting for profitable crops 
of Plums in the strong soil—clay with an admixture of chalk—eight 
or nine years elapsing from planting before any substantial amount 
can be realised ; but the trees being on grass the cost of attending 
to them is not great, and when once they become profitable they 
continue so for two or three generations, as is evident by old 
established trees in the locality. Not far distant, where the land 
is lighter and drier, the trees bear profitable crops in three or four 
years, but soon lose vigour, and wear out long in advance of those 
growing in a more substantial food-holding medium. Strong soil, 
firm soil, well fed soil, are what Mr. Smith regards as the essentials 
for profitable crops of Plums over a prolonged period, and these 
conditions provided as at Mentmore the plantations distinctly 
contribute to the beauty of the landscape and enhance the value of 
the land. 
As to beauty, what is more charming than say 50 acres of 
Plums when white with blossom? shining like a silvery, billowy 
sea in the sunshine of early spring ; and what more satisfying than 
the harvest of purple and other colours which the varieties assume 
as they change for ripening in the summer and early autumn ? 
Then the trees individually possess a beauty of their own, especially 
to the cultivator, in their characteristic forms, and open yet well 
balanced heads, full of fruit, for where light finds free access 
fruit follows, and it may as well be had, as it may be with very 
little trouble right through the trees as well as at the ends of the 
branches. The crop at Mentmore is not all outside show, and we 
have to go amongst the trees and look into them to appreciate the 
full bounty of the yield. Passing along the road and taking a 
general glance the crop does not appear a heavy one, but as we 
drive between the rows of trees we see that it is heavy enough for the 
fruit to be fine and profitable without being unduly exhaustive. A 
“glut” is not desired, but even in the great Plum year of 1878 
Mr. Smith had no difficulty in selling his crop of 60 tons of fruit. 
Such overlading, however, “ gives the trees a shaking,” and they 
require time for recuperation. 
As to profit, the late Baron was right in his forecast, and the 
Plum plantations on grass would now let as readily for £10 an 
acre as the surrounding fields would at £2 or even 30s. That is 
conclusive. It is no vague estimate founded on fanciful figures, 
but a verity based on experience in the actual sale of fruit. The 
plantations have been greatly extended since the estate passed to 
Lord Rosebery by his marriage with a lady whose grace and good¬ 
ness brightened the district, and whose loss is still deeply mourned 
by the inhabitants of every creed and class. It is gratifying to 
observe that his lordship cherishes his princely home and its beau¬ 
tiful surroundings, and well-considered improvements in planting 
young trees and thinning older plantations, making roads, removing 
old and erecting new buildings have been effected, others being in 
progress, thus affording employment to many workers and adding 
completeness to his estate. 
To return to the Plums. Stations are well prepared for the 
trees and planting is carefully done. They are securely staked, 
and bushed, i.e., the stems protected with thorns or other sticks 
tied round them, against injury by sheep or rabbits, and for two 
or three years mulchings of manure take the place of grass to 
encourage free growth. This secured the grass is allowed to grow 
up to the stems, and sturdy, firm, fruitful wood follows in the firm 
soil. The trees are pruned after planting by shortening well back 
the long young branches, Mr. Smith being strongly opposed to 
waiting a year, with the consequent struggle for life the first season 
and some almost certain deaths, preferring a certain summer’s 
growth of moderate extension, yet sturdy, for laying a good 
foundation in the trees. Those in a bearing state are also assisted 
from time to time by having the grass removed in a sufficient circle 
round them for admitting three or four barrowfuls of London 
manure. This is rammed down firmly and covered in spring and 
the grass again allowed to grow. It is soon trampled hard by the 
sheep, an increase of fibrous roots follows, and the trees im¬ 
prove in colour, make freer growth and afford finer fruit. The 
manure costs 5s. a ton delivered, then there is the labour, but the 
outlay is a profitable investment, in other words this work of 
culture pays or it would not be done. 
The trees are pruned, or such as may need it, on simple and 
sensible lines. There is little, if any, shortening of the branches 
after the trees are formed, and severe thinning is never resorted 
to, for the sufficient reason that it is not necessary, as by timely 
action in removing a few branches, which if left would be inimical, 
any approach to overcrowding is averted. That is the whole secret 
of the matter—preventing an evil instead of suffering it to occur, 
then having a general slash to remove it. There is an enormous 
difference in the two methods as affecting the fruitfulness of 
trees, yet numbers of would-be fruit growers are provokingly slow 
to grasp the significance of this difference. Only a comparatively 
few appear to fully appreciate the importance of a thin disposal of 
the main branches of fruit trees ; not by the removal of a number 
to relieve the crowding, but by the immeasurably better and easier 
- way of never permitting anything approaching a thicket to occur. 
When a thicket does occur, thinning, though it should be done, can 
only be regarded as the lesser of two evils, the greater being the 
original mistake of rendering the work necessary. Among the 
thousands of fine young Plum trees under notice—trees varying 
from four or five to fifteen or twenty years of age, there are few 
that need more than five minutes spending on them in pruning, 
but this little time will be given instead of waiting till thrice the 
cutting out would be requisite ; in the meantime serious, if not 
irretrievable injury, being done in limiting the fruit-producing 
power of the trees. 
Some of the best varieties of Plums grown at Mentmore 
were named by Mr. Smith in his Chiswick paper. In the 
No. 637 .—Yol. XXV., Third Series. 
No.^2293. —Vol. LXXXVII., Old Series. 
