328 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October 17, 1889." 
we hope that we shall know how to avert. The almost absolute cer¬ 
tainty of continuance must be set against the fact that it is not possible 
to make a rapid fortune by growing fruit; it is not, however, subject to the 
vicissitudes which beset those who endeavour to achieve rapid fortunes ; 
and although excessive foreign importations may to a certain extent 
check our legitimate hopes, the fruit-growing industry is not alone in 
this matter. 
Our Society will. I hope, set before the public that fruit-growing 
should be more developed on farms, that it should not be confined to 
market gardens and to speculative orchards. If the multitude of farms 
were to devote a small proportion of land, say 1 rood to 150 acres—to 
the cultivation of fruit which is adapted to the soil, a very large supply 
would come to the markets. But I do not mean by naming this pro¬ 
portion of land that it is to be cultivated in the ordinary style of farm 
orchards, which seem to me always to promise a very remote profit to 
the planter, as so much time is consumed before the trees come into 
bearing, but an orchard fenced and cultivated as carefully as a well 
tended kitchen garden, the profit of such an orchard being amply suf¬ 
ficient to repay the care and labour given to it ; by the production of 
fruit of superior size and quality, such as will be inevitably exacted by 
the consumer of the immediate future, who will not be content unless 
he is supplied with fruit of good quality either for the dessert or the 
kitchen. This quality can only be obtained by proper cultiva¬ 
tion and the knowledge of soil and of classes of fruits adapted to 
the soil. As a rule I think too much reliance has been placed 
upon our venerable orchards. It has been, I think, too much the 
custom to consider that the inheritance of an orchard planted by 
a great grandfather is enough for the great grandson during his 
lifetime, and to this idea our present failure to meet foreign competi¬ 
tion is in some measure due. These venerable trees are picturesque, 
hut they are not profitable. A great part of the fruit when gathered is 
of inferior size, and has to be selected very carefully, generally 
leaving too large per-centage of small fruits to realise a good price ; 
and it is also very expensive to gather, as this cannot be done with¬ 
out ladders. The system of cultivation which I should advise, rightly or 
wrongly, is that of comparatively dwarf trees from which the fruit can 
be easily gathered, that they should be planted at distances varying 
from 6 to 9 feet, and that moderate pruning should be employed by 
which the trees can be kept at a size which will enable the planters to 
realise these conditions of gathering a large quantity of fruit from a 
limited area. You wid soon perceive, on taking the measurement of a 
standard tree of fifteen or twenty years, that a great deal of room is 
occupied by unproductive wood, the stem and the branches spreading 
over a great space of ground, and not by any means improving the 
grass underneath. This waste is avoided by closer planting and more 
thorough cultivation. If it is supposed that such a plantation will not 
endure so long as onr respectable old trees, it will at all events have fed 
and profited the planter, who need not trouble himself to look beyond 
his own necessities and desires. It is out of the question to think that 
fruit trees are to last so long that two or three generations are to elapse 
before new plantations are requisite. 
At the risk of being thought too confident I must insist that the 
orchard of the present should be prepared by trenching 2-1 inches deep, 
with a very liberal supply of manure, fenced in with wire netting where 
game is plentiful, kept free from weeds, and planted with dwarf trees 
from 6 to 9 feet apart, a row of bush fruit planted between. Of orchard 
fruit in England the Apple and the Plum must always remain the most 
important, and in both classes the English can challenge the whole 
world for unrivalled excellence in sorts. At the present time we can, 
therefore, meet foreign competition by keeping our markets supplied 
with superior quality, and this we can do. Our Gooseberries, Currants, 
Strawberries, and Raspberries are better than any that the Continent 
can furnish, and although I believe that Continental growers are pre¬ 
paring to meet us by adopting our varieties, yet they cannot, in Goose¬ 
berries and Raspberries especially, compete against our climate, which 
is admirably suited to the production of these fruits. 
It has been the custom for many centuries to consider the Crab 
stock as the only stock for Apples, except, of course, in gardens, and 
this is certainly true with regard to standard orchard trees ; but as I have 
stated, and as I believe, that profitable Apple culture must be carried on 
by closer planting, it will be more advantageous to the planter to select 
a stock which has the property of inducing early fertility. There is no 
doubt that Apples grafted on the Crab stock will, if planted when two 
years old, come into bearing very quickly, but in the course of a few 
years the trees become too vigorous and produce more wood than is 
requisite. We have for some years employed the so-called Paradise 
stock to correct this tendency with the best results. There is now as 
variety of stock produced from the seed of the Nonesuch Apple, and 
which is singularly well adapted for dwarf orchards. The trees are 
moderately vigorous, remarkably fertile, and, moreover, the production 
of roots is so profuse that trees seven or eight years old can be 
removed with safety ; in fact I removed some bush trees of the Cox’s 
Orange Pippin, which had been planted by my father, which have re¬ 
mained in the same place for fourteen years without root-pruning. 
These trees are still healthy fruit-bearing bushes, and are about 
twenty-four years old. This stock is the Nonesuch. The French 
Paradise, or the dwarf Apple of Armenia, is not at all suitable for 
planting for profit. Apples grafted upon it form pretty and curious 
garden trees, and nothing more. When I had the honour of reading 
a paper before you last year I mentioned a list of sorts, which was 
supplemented by other speakers, there is therefore no necessity to 
recapitulate these sorts. I may say that I hope before long our markets 
will be so vvell supplied with Apples of such good quality that our 
very good friends, the Americans, will be compelled to consume their 
flat, tasteless, and woolly Baldwins amongst themselves ; we shall not 
want them here. 
We are, I understand, menaced with the importation of Plums frortb 
the vast Plum-growing districts of Servia and Eastern Europe, probably 
the same sort of rubbish as that poured into Hull from the Plum orchards, 
of Germany. The Servians, I understand, distil an ardent and fiery- 
spirit from the Plum, horribly injurious to the consumer. This compe¬ 
tition we shall have to meet. It seems to me almost incredible that the 
products of such a distance can beat us who are close to our markets y 
but here again the quality of the fruit must be the point on which we- 
shall gain the day, and I am sure that we have the advantage of the 
choice of sorts, in Plums especially, and the quality, combined with 
quantity, must be our Cheval tie Bataille. Let the Servians keep their- 
own fruit, unless, indeed, we cannot beat them. In a former paper I 
have given my own experience of the most profitable sorts of Plums, to- 
which I hope you will allow me to refer you. I have been successful in 
securing crops of Plums owing entirely to the quality of the soil, which 
is singularly favourable to their culture. It is a strong calcareous clay,, 
and to the nature of the soil I owe all my success. The planter of Plum 
orchards should be very careful to examine the soil before making afiy 
iarge plantations. The Plum is one of the most valuable fruits for pre¬ 
serving and drying. Although dried Plums seem at present almost a 
continental monopoly, there is no reason why this industry should not- 
be acclimatised in England, especially as I have reason to think that we 
shall find sorts of English Plums fully equal in drying properties to the 
most approved continental kinds. This is a matter which no doubt will, 
be taken up and developed by our fruit preservers as soon as they are 
satisfied that the manufacture can be carried on with success and profits 
It is not only in England that the revival of fruit culture has 
awakened a strong interest. In Ireland efforts are being made to popu¬ 
larise the culture on small holdings. Mr. Bullock Hall, one of the? 
leaders in this most important and salutary undertaking, has already 
published an account of the success that is likely to be derived from an. 
intelligent system of cultivation. 
All Englishmen will, I am sure, earnestly hope that Mr. Hall’s-- 
efforts in this direction will be rewarded by the success which is due to- 
him. I must here remind English growers that to Ireland we owe two- 
of our most popular Apples, the Irish Peach and the Kerry Pippin. I 
think also that many varieties are peculiar to Ireland w T hich are not 
found in this country. Besides the cultivation of the Apple I am sure- 
that in Ireland districts can be found where Pears can be grown fully 
equal to those produced in the most favoured Pear country—namely, the 
south-west of France. From Limerick and its neighbourhood I have- 
seen splendid specimens of Pears. If the necessary capital could be- 
obtained I am convinced that a large Pear-growing industry could be- 
established in certain parts of the south of Ireland, and Pears could be? 
grown not only for the ordinary market, but of a size large enough to- 
appear on the dessert tables of the wealthy. Of course it must be- 
understood that the cultivation of large and weighty dessert fruit mustr 
be conducted under certain conditions—that is, on dwarf trees and in. 
sheltered places, as they are too heavy to hang in gusty weather when 
they have attained their full size. As the season of dessert Pears lasts- 
from September to March, and sorts exist which will furnish desserts 
tables during these months, it seems to me that a wide field is open,, 
and that an opportunity is afforded which can be almost monopolised- 
by Ireland. 
Pear-growing in England is a very uncertain business. There are, 
I no doubt, some loca’ities in which the Pear orchard is profitable. I 
