JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ D< c mber 20, 15 t 8 . 
5»4 
•with other flowers grown under the same circumstances. The 
natural result is this, and being natural it is inevitable, where the 
Christmas supply of flowers depended on retardation and preserva¬ 
tion there must be scarcity this year in most, if not all, green¬ 
houses. Where suitable houses for advancing other flowers exist 
gardeners who were wideawake would see the blank in prospect and 
take prompt action for diminishing the inconvenience. 
Vegetables of all the useful and seasonable kinds are plentiful 
this year where space was adequate for their production, and proper 
methods, which have been indicated, pursued in their cultivation. 
With these remarks, penned with the object of minimising dis¬ 
comforts that may be felt through possible, and in many instances 
unpreventable shortcomings, we wish to all our readers of every 
rank and degree most cordially and sincerely 
A Merry Christmas. 
HISTORICAL NOTES ON ORCHARDS. 
It is a trite old saying that “ history repeats itself,” and the 
observation is not destitute of truth. In respect to the culture of 
fruit, we find history repeating itself with a considerable amount of 
fidelity. Relative to the planting of orchards in past times we find 
this sentence in the notes published last week, and which were 
written before many present-day readers were born. Bemarking 
on the decrepit orchards it is stated, “ no regular systematic plant¬ 
ing and successive cultivation of fruit trees seems ever to have been 
kept up in this country ; whatever was done was brought about by 
urgency, and carried out with impetuosity, but no steady, continuous 
system of operation ; and hence the state in which our orchards 
were at the close of the last century.” Let it be added, hence 
their state, at the beginning of the present decade ; indeed, hence 
the condition of the great majority now. 
Something like regular and systematic planting has, no doubt, 
been practised in private gardens for affording fruit for private use, 
and adding to the number of varieties in existing collections, for 
there is a natural desire on the part of gardeners and owners of 
gardens to “ try new sorts.” A great deal might be said in favour 
of this. Information is derived thereby, and the most profitable 
varieties determined in the districts of these private garden ex¬ 
periments that may be of service to the surrounding community. 
Besides, home interest attaches to such trials, and pleasure is 
derivable from them, not less than that obtained from growing a 
variety of flowers by persons whose tastes lie in that direction ; 
and if gardens are made really pleasurable the end attained justifies 
the means. 
_ The above citation does not, however, refer to garden fruit for 
private use, but to extensive orcharding, or fruit farming, for 
commercial purposes. In that respect history has unquestionably 
repeated itself during the present generation ; for whatever of 
planting has been done during the last three decades has been by 
fits and starts, or “ brought about by urgency, and carried out with 
impetuosity.” There is no wonder that very much alive Ame¬ 
ricans, who have been in the habit of prospecting this country with 
their eyes open for years, should not have seen their opportunity, 
and seized it, by planting extensively, and sending more marketable 
fruit to the “ old country,” than they saw was produced and sold in 
it. Who can reasonably quarrel with them for doing so ? The 
fault that the English Apple supply has been so inadequate, not in 
quantity so much as in quality, is not theirs, but the direct out¬ 
come of the negligence or apathy of English landowners and 
cultivators. Granting the “ law ” has prohibited planting in some 
cases, have those whom the law has not obstructed done what 
might have been done in providing English fruit of the first 
condition and in large bulk for our markets ? No one can answer 
in the affirmative. Granted that extraordinary tithe, railway rates, 
market tolls, and middlemen’s charges are impediments to fruit 
production, what have been the efforts to remove them ? There 
have been practically no systematic organised and persistent efforts 
to that end. “ Papers have been read ” on the subjects during 
recent years, and speeches made by able men at “meetings ; ” but 
what care Ecclesiastical Commissioners, railway directors, and 
market owners for “papers” and “discussions,” which end where 
they began ? and what is the use of organisations that begin and 
end with “ papers ?” 
The periodical agitations that spring up, and subside again, no 
doubt lead to spasmodic planting. Something calls them forth— 
some kind of “urgency,” an impetuous rush for trees following. 
The “ urgency ’ for systematic, continuous, and successive planting 
of trees in this country was never so great as it is now, and if not 
pursued the Apple trade will soon be practically driven out of the- 
kingdom, so far as regards the production of the fruit. There are 
signs, however, that the reaction that set in, with the Chiswick 
Congress of 1883, in favour of an extension of orcharding will not 
quickly subside, for if the Royal Horticultural Society slackens its 
efforts in the direction indicated, other agencies will carry out the 
work, and ought to do so, because experience is proving that the 
best English Apples quite surpass transatlantic fruit in culinary 
virtues, and it is only a question of time for the general body of 
consumers to find it out. But it has to be remembered their first 
lessons in the education desired will be through the eye, therefore 
it is very essential that the appearance of samples be good and 
even tempting, for it is not in human nature to hasten to taste that 
which is not pleasant to see. It is that fact which the most for¬ 
midable competitions in the fruit supply have recognised, hence 
the position they have gained in our markets. After this long- 
introduction to our old friend’s writings, we shall have to be content 
with a small instalment of them this week, reserving the com¬ 
pletion for another occasion. Here is his continuation :— 
“ Having exhibited the low condition of orchards, and the almost 
total extinction that had befallen those in Kent at the close of 
the last century, we remarked that the observations we were about 
to make with respect to Kent would apply equally to the orchards 
in other parts of the country ; and as a proof we find about the 
same time the late Mr. T. A. Knight was devoting his time and 
influence to the resuscitation of those of Herefordshire, which had 
fallen pretty much into the same declining state. 
“ We have no means of judging, but in the absence of positive 
evidence on the subject we have every reason to believe that in 
consequence of the gradual decrease of the home supply the impor¬ 
tations of foreign fruit must at that period have been consider¬ 
able ; and so again we are brought to a crisis similar to that with 
which Richard Harris had to contend nearly 300 years before. We 
are warranted in stating this supposition, for no sooner had we 
entered on that long and disastrous war, which raged from 180>2 
till 1815, during which time our commercial intercourse with the 
Continent was cut off, and our importations were either consider¬ 
ably restricted or entirely stopped, than the price of fruit rose to 
an enormous height. But till then men had forgotten all about 
their orchards, and it was not till “ the pressure from without,” 
and the old urgency were brought to bear upon them, that they 
bethought themselves of the old trees and the old orchards which 
they had neglected and thrown away years before, and all at once 
they began to wish them back again. Numerous, doubtless, were 
the regrets and self-reproaches which many a one expressed when 
his neighbours returned from Covent Garden or old Fleet Market, 
rejoicing over the five golden guineas they had got in exchange for 
a bushel of Apples. Many were the grave councils held across 
boundary fences of adjoining farms, and weighty were the sage 
remarks that met with ready acquiescence at market-rooms on 
market days and church doors on Sundays ; and then, after each 
and all had talked themselves into the assurance that no doubt 
could exist as to the remuneration to be obtained, they set to work 
with all possible rapidity, liberality, and hope to redeem lost time 
by planting orchards, which some seven or eight or ten years after¬ 
wards might come into bearing—for there were no dwarf orchards 
in Kent in those days. 
“ The high prices continued. Those who had a supply congratu¬ 
lated themselves on their good fortune or good judgment, and 
those who had none grumbled because they had neither. Thus 
matters went on with the usual attendants of complaint, disap¬ 
pointment, or dissatisfaction till the conclusion of the war, and 
then in 1816 there was an importation of foreign fruit. The pro¬ 
tecting duty at this time was 3s. 2d. a bushel; but this was not 
enough, and great was the outcry against such importation being 
permitted. Memorials were prepared, signed, and presented for 
an increase of duty. Orchards were again to be grubbed up which 
had only a few years before been planted. Families were to be 
ruined, parishes depopulated, and the country sacrificed because 
the orchardist could not realise “war prices” for his fruit, and 
because the consumer was enjoying his apple-dumpling twice a 
week instead of once, as before. The outcry succeeded, and 
because the price of Apples had fallen one-third Government raised 
the protecting duty from 3s. 2d. to 4s. in 1819. This was a great 
deliverance, and so the work of planting progressed to such an 
extent that where there was an acre planted in 1802 there were 
ten planted in 1819. Still, notwithstanding the increased duty, 
there were 92,212 bushels imported that same year. Planting 
increased ; Apples realised from 6s. to 8s. per bushel, and fruit 
became again one of the most important articles of produce in all 
the county of Kent. 
“ A tabular view is subjoined of the quantities of Apples 
imported into this country from 1819 to 1837, a few months before 
