August IS, 1891. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
137 
HARDY FRUIT CULTURE IN SOUTH WALES. 
[A paper read by Mr. A. Pettigrew at the Cardiff Conference of the British Fruit 
Growers’ Association, August 12th, 1391.] 
climate and the soil and situation in many places in South 
Wales are admirably adapted for the cultivation of all kinds of 
hardy fruits. With these natural advantages, and the increasing 
proper care be taken in selecting and cultivating the most suitable- 
varieties. 
There are few orchards in Glamorgan, and what few I have 
seen are (and have been) much neglected. To judge from the 
stunted sickly appearance of some of the trees, and the bushy mass 
of branches in others, nothing has been done to them in the way of 
pruning and manuring the soil since they were planted. The. 
demand for fruits of all kinds in our large towns and populous 
mining districts, it is surprising that some of our intelligent 
and energetic market gardeners have not long since made fruit 
growing a speciality on a large scale in the neighbourhood cf 
Cardiff. After eighteen years’ experience of growing fruit in this 
district I am thoroughly convinced that as fine Apples, Pears, and 
Plums, and other kinds can be grown here in the vales of 
Glamorgan, and in many other places all over the country, as 
those produced in the best fruit growing counties in England if 
planting, no doubt, in the majority of cases, was crude, and con¬ 
sisted simply of digging a hole without any previous preparation 
of the soil, putting the roots into it and covering them with earth, 
after which the tree was left to its own resources—nothing being 
done to it afterwards. 
To be successful in the cultivation of fruits of any kind the 
best sites should be chosen, and the ground thoroughly prepared, 
when necessary, by draining, trenching, digging, and manuring 
before planting the trees. In orchards, Apple and Pear trees 
