S78 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
not quite so highly coloured or so large as picked samples from the 
Colonies, but large enough to command top prices when well grown 
and packed and properly marketed. There must be no shaking from the 
trees, but the cream of the crop must be hand-picked and honestly 
packed as firsts and seconds. The residue or refuse, which added to the 
1 est, would increase expenses and pull down prices, would then remain 
at home for various purposes. 
Mr. Knight, the great physiologist and hybridist, who worked so 
much in Hereford and Salop, proved by analysis that some soils, even in 
these favoured counties, were preferable to others for producing Apples 
of dense gravity and full of saccharine matter. The late Dr. Bull, of 
whom Hereford should be proud, following in his wake, corroborated all 
that Knight had said, proving, I think satisfactorily, what past genera¬ 
tions of shrewd men had found out for themselves, both as regards the 
quality of the fruit and the constituents of the soil which should be 
chosen for Apples, also for Pears. The conclusions at which they arrived 
were these : The light thin soils will not grow the best Apples, therefore 
those who would plant a successful orchard must choose a deep stiff 
sandstone loam if they have the opportunity of doing so. All the 
orchard land in this county is not alike good ; indeed, some is very bad, 
but the soil here, as in Devonshire, which produces the best fruit owes 
its fertility to the plentiful supply of lime from the marl or cormstone ; 
to its great depth and sustaining nature. Scientists who will may 
peruse the first part of the “ Herefordshire Pomona,” or they may follow 
Mr. Rivers through his exhaustive address delivered at the Crystal 
Palace, but my remarks, necessarily brief, will guide plain practical 
planters to the best spots for new plantations. 
Having been honoured by an invitation to contribute a short paper 
upon the Apple, I have determined to confine myself to the west mid¬ 
land orchards, in which, I am pleased to repeat, some progress has been 
made since the first Conference was held in 1883. Draining, grubbing, 
grafting, and planting are still going on, but much remains to be done 
before we can invite inspectiou. Although the Apple is a long-lived 
tree and perfectly hardy in all its parts save its flowers the occupants of 
many of our oldest orchards, crippled by age, bad usage, and neglect are 
past recovery, and should be cleared away, but the ground they occupy 
should not be replanted if better or equally good sites can be found for 
new plantations. Other orchards, again, containing thoroughly sound 
young trees, although of inferior sorts, after the grubber’s axe has passed 
over the land, may be converted by grafting and resuscitated by drain¬ 
ing and top-dressing. Some of our oldest orchards which date back to 
the Wars of the Roses contain a great number of wildings or kernel 
fruits of no value to the owners even, whilst younger plantations are 
crowded with healthy vigorous trees, at one time supposed be Norman, 
but now proved to be English seedlings, no better than the stocks used 
in large nurseries. Upon the first I would not spend money, as they are 
too old for grafting, too old to pay rent, too old for anything save loss 
and disappointment. The second I would behead and regraft with 
choice varieties which have been proved in the locality. Confining my¬ 
self to old orchards now existing or languishing in the western counties, 
I maj close my remarks upon this head by saying, Cut down all useless 
trees, thin out the heads of those worth keeping, cleanse the branches 
and stems from moss and insects, regraft sound healthy trees into good 
market sorts, and see that the drainage is satisfactory. I will not pre¬ 
sume to inform practical men who may deign to read my remarks that 
sound, deep, naturally drained orchards are better than others which 
require artificial treatment, and that a certain quantity of moisture in 
the soil is absolutely necessary, but on no account must it be stagnant. 
All gardeners are well acquainted with the fact that soils too dry pro¬ 
duce fruit that is small and mealy, whilst water-logged soils are several 
degrees colder than others of similar texture that are free from this 
root-chilling poison. They know, moreover, that warm summer rains 
run off the surface, whilst the sun acts very slowly in raising the tem¬ 
perature of the wet subsoil in which deeply seated roots soon perish, and 
those nearest the surface are little better off, as they do not commence 
fresh action much before midsummer. Drainage, all good cultivators 
assert, is the first essential in the preparation of new orchards or in the 
renovation of old ones, and why ? well, simply because the removal of 
stagnant, if not putrid, water and the introduction of fresh air raises 
the temperature of the soil from 3° to 5°, a condition which not in¬ 
frequently forms the dividing line betwixt success and failure. 
So far my remarks have been confined to old orchards, planted 
haphazard upon all sorts and conditions of badly prepared land, as 
well as in unfavourable situations. The best of these may be retained 
for a time, upon the principle that half a loaf is better than no 
tread; but the majority of them must go, and young ones must 
f ©ctofc«r Si, 188*. 
Ill N 
spring up before we can hope to realise an average £10 an acre, 
or compete with the colonists in our own markets. Some years, as 
many present know, have passed since horticulturists commenced agi¬ 
tating, but the good seed which was intended to put three-quarters of a 
million of money into the British farmers’ pocket for a long time fell 
upon stony ground. Some recently has taken root, and far-seeing land- 
owners are now putting our theory into practice by offering land upon 
conditions that will induce capitalists to invest in fruit culture precisely 
as they do in coal and iron. In this and the adjoining counties good 
landlorls are raising and distributing to their tenantry Apple and Pear 
trees by thousands. These mostly are standards on free stocks, the only 
class of tree suited to pasture and arable land. Nurserymen, again, 
who have brought propagation up to a fine art, are producing standards 
and dwarfs by the million, and these surely in a few years should make 
their mark. Meantime, a complete network of markets, I insist, must 
be created throughout the kingdom. 
From the preceding remarks those who run may gather the fact that 
I do not set much value on the thousands of acres of ragged, decrepit, 
moss and lichen-laden trees, but until the new plantations come into 
bearing we must make the best of them. Then, with Gladstonian vigour, 
we may hew them down, and let the Apple-sick sites go back to Hops, 
corn, and pasture. Upon this principle change of site may be worked 
precisely as gardeners now manage their Strawberry plantations, and 
with similar results. As I venture to say, one acre of modern orcharding 
will beat ten of the old—at least, in the West Midland counties. 
Already I am afraid my paper is too long, but having warmed to my 
subject, I should now like to say a few words upon the formation of 
these modern orchards. I might divide them into several parts, such as 
aspect, site, soil, preparation, planting, the best style of tree manuring, 
mulching, pruning and protection, gathering, storing, packing, and 
marketing, but my time being limited, my words must be brief and 
general. 
Aspect and site being so closely dovetailed together these I will not 
attempt to separate. All gardeners, I believe, are pretty well agreed 
that a south aspect is best, as trees in this position ripen their wood 
well, and produce fruit of the highest colour and quality. The Apple, 
however, being perfectly hardy, the quality of the soil must not be lost 
sight of ; neither must altitude and shelter from north and east winds be 
repudiated. Under these circumstances, the soil being deep sandstone 
loam resting on marl, and naturally drained, I should not object to a 
point east, or any other aspect round with the sun to full west. The 
latter, however, I should prefer, and for these reasons ; although western 
gales in this part of the country do some damage, it is well known that 
if plants are exposed to the first rays of the morning sun when they are 
frozen they will suffer, but if they are shaded until they are gradually 
thawed by the rising temperature of the air they will stand a few 
degrees with impunity. An orchard open to the east or south-east is 
almost sure to suffer an attack of spring frost when in full flower or 
setting, whereas one with a western aspect, which does not receive the 
sun until the temperature has risen and dispelled the frost often sets 
and carries full crops to maturity. Hardly a year passes in which the 
gardener does not find early crops of all kinds are safer and finer upon 
west borders than upon others. Therefore I think few will deny that 
his experience is of great value to the planter. The site, I may say, 
should be above the line of fog, and it should not be too near or on a level 
with water. If naturally drained much time and expense will be saved, 
otherwise this operation must be well carried out as a preliminary to 
preparation. This may be performed in two ways—viz., by trenching 
two spits deep for pyramids or bushes, or by taking out large circular 
stations on grass or arable land for standards. If trenching is decided 
upon, the bottom spit, if heavy and inferior, should not be brought to 
the surface, but it may be ameliorated by the addition of burnt clay 
from the drains, by road-scrapings, or any other fresh friable material 
short of rich animal manure. This, unless the staple be very poor, I 
would keep back for use as a mulch after the trees are planted. On all 
ordinary loams young trees grow fast enough at first, but the time comes 
when they must be fed, otherwise they cannot be expected to yield year 
after year fruit of the finest quality. 
In the preparation of stations for standards on grass or tillage 
ground, I would throw off the top spit 9 feet in diameter, break up the 
bottom, and throw out clay or bad material to be carted away or burned. 
If cold and at all unfavourable to root growth, exposure of the soil for 
a few weeks or months would greatly improve its quality. Otherwise, 
after correcting the bottom spit, that thrown off first, turf included, with 
anything in the way of road scrapings or old lime rubble added, may be 
chopped in until the hole is quite full or a little above the ground level 
