352 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October 24, 1889. 
similar, but tbe flowers are individually smaller than those first 
mentioned, though they are borne in umbel-like heads. It was 
shown from Kew some time ago, and it has recently flowered again 
there. Like most of the others it is of easy culture, succeeding 
either in small pots or shallow pans, with good drainage, in a warm 
house. 
LIQUID MANURE FOR FRUIT TREES. 
The question of “ R. H. S.” properly ought to have been 
addressed to Mr. Wright, to whom is due the credit of the recom¬ 
mendation to apply liquid manure to fruit trees, especially in winter. 
However, I will do the best I can to reply to it. My answer is not 
even a qualified no, but an emphatic yes. Apples, Pears, and other- 
fruit trees when once established do not require mulching ; cold at 
their roots in winter does not injure them. A mulching of leaves, 
insomuch as they contain little plant food is scarcely of use except 
for protection from cold. A top-dressing of manure is beneficial 
in proportion to the plant food it contains, and a soaking with good 
liquid manure is valuable in the same proportion. “ R. H. S.” says 
that his soil is “ cold and clammy,” by which I suppose he means a 
strong clay loam. Such a soil would be more likely than a light 
porous soil to be benefited by liquid manure, as it is more capable 
of extracting every particle of the food elements from the liquid, 
leaving only the water to percolate away. Even if the soil of 
“ R. H. S.” were not well drained he need have no fear that 
2 or 3 inches of fluid in addition to the ordinary rainfall would 
injuriously affect his fruit trees, although his soil be cold and 
clammy. An excess of rainfall in the winter above the average 
certainly does no harm except so far as it may carry away in the 
drainage water some of the elements of plant food ; but if the 
excess be in the form of liquid manure the food remaining in the 
soil is infinitely greater than the loss by drainage, and in the event 
of a deficiency of rainfall, as happened in the winter 1887-8, the 
water in the liquid manure is as, or perhaps more, beneficial than 
the manure itself.— Edmund Tonks. 
FRUIT JOTTINGS. 
Sawbridgeworth is a quiet Hertfordshire town of moderate ex¬ 
tent and population, yet the name has been rendered familiar to all 
horticulturists throughout the length and breadth of Great Britain by 
its association with the historical and celebrated fruit nurseries of 
Messrs. T. Rivers & Son. There during two or three generations have 
fruit culture and improvement been made a practical and scientific 
study, and the results, as seen in the numerous additions to the lists of 
pood fruits that find a place in the best gardens, and the beautiful 
samples staged at exhibitions, afford abundant proofs of the success 
achieved. Increasing the number of useful fruits and extending their 
season is a public service of an important character that merits recogni¬ 
tion quite apart from the commercial advantages accruing to him who 
is fortunate enough to secure such novelties. Fruit is regarded as some¬ 
thing more than a luxury now. It is a part of the food of the people, 
and as such its improvement or increase becomes a matter of national 
importance. Beyond this, however, experiments in profitable fruit 
culture have been undertaken at Sawbridgeworth, and many a valuable 
lesson has been learned there by visitors, who have turned the informa¬ 
tion gained to good account elsewhere. Specialists and enthusiasts do 
the best work in their respective studies or professions, and when 
enthusiasm is tempered by experience and guided by a close attention to 
the financial aspect of the work, we do not expect to find anything of a 
visionary or fanciful character. So it is at Sawbridgeworth, Mr. 
T. Francis Rivers adding to his late father’s long experience his own 
keen observation and critical knowledge of fruits and their culture, 
has developed his 300 acres of land into an admirable nursery, farm and 
school of pomology that is in its way quite unsurpassed. A long-desired 
opportunity of visitinz the Sawbridgeworth Nursery was recently afforded, 
so a bright October morning last week found us speeding from Liverpool 
Street down to Harlow-, the nearest station for a traveller from London. 
Mr. T. F. Rivers was quickly found, and an inspection commenced that 
kept us well occupied for some hours. It would be useless to attempt to 
record in detail all that was seen or talked about that morning, but a 
few of the leading points may serve for a paragraph or two appropriately 
under the head of “ jottings.” 
STOCKS. 
Nine or ten acres of vigorous young trees, one, two, or three years 
old, were first examined—Apples, Pears, Cherries, Peaches, and Plums, 
in all the best varieties, the young trees as healthy, strong, and even as 
anyone could desire. The Apples in particular, which occupy a large 
proportion of the space, are most noteworthy, and for all of them two 
stocks only are employed. For orchard trees and standards the Crab 
is used, and for dwarf trees a seedling from the Nonesuch is exclusively 
used in preference to any of the Paradise stocks. After many experi¬ 
ments had been tried, and with the experience of many years, this None¬ 
such stock 1 as been found to be the most satisfactory for promoting free 
yet compact growth and early fruiting. It was raised by the late Mr. 
T. Rivers from the old Nonesuch, an Apple of good quality, and remark¬ 
able for its quick and regular cropping. What first attracted attention 
in the seedlinz was the formation of a number of fibrous roots at the 
“collar” of the stem, level with the ground or a little above it. The 
roots generally were also found to be very fibrous, abundant, and near 
to the stem, thus presenting all the qualities needed in a stock for 
garden trees. This was soon taken advantage of, and every experiment 
afforded additional proof of its value, until, as already stated, it has been 
found expedient to employ that and the Crab alone. Trees one year old 
from the bud were seen with clean, straight stems, 5 and 6 feet high ; 
others two years old, which had been cut down the previous season, had 
several good branches, while tbe three-year-old trees were compact and 
handsome bushes, ready for bearing. All the best varieties were repre- 
sented ; but of the most popular, such as Ecklinville, Warner’s King, 
Duchess of Oldenburgh. Ribston Pippin, and Cox’s Orange, there were 
large breadths, comprising thousands of useful young trees. Of Pears 
also, on the Quince there was an excellent collection, and admirable 
samples of two-year-old trees were noted. Peaches like Willows, Plums 
and Cherries all thriving', and evidently enjoying the position they occu¬ 
pied—a warm slope to the south, on a retentive yellow soil. 
Too much importance cannot be attached to the selection of stocks 
for trees, and it is unquestionably a matter that has at times been 
rather seriously neglected, to the cost of the planter. No after care or 
culture can correct a mistake in this respect, and if after a year or two 
it is found that trees are failing or becoming irregular and unsatis¬ 
factory, it means not onlv an actual loss in expenditure, but a loss of 
time that is far worse. Not long since we visited a newly formed fruit 
farm planted a year or two ago, and tbe differences observable in two 
series of trees from different sources were remarkable, and in one 
respect deplorable, for a large space was occupied with trees that 
showed by their erratic growth or stunted condition that the stocks had 
been carelessly selected or were quite unsuitab’e. The same varieties 
represented in the other trees were as even in growth and as healthy 
as could be wished. All were of the same age, were planted atthesame 
time, and had received precisely the same treatment, yet in the one 
case probably half the trees would have to be removed and others 
substituted. 
DWARF TREES. 
At Sawbridgeworth innumerable excellent specimens of dwarf fruit 
trees are seen, and these constitute one of the specialties of the nursery, 
for Mr. Rivers has proved the advantages arising from their employ¬ 
ment. He points to Apples, Pears, and Plums of all ages up to thirty 
years and more, fine healthful trees in full bearing, not occupying one- 
half the space that an ordinary orchard tree would do, yet giving 
bountiful returns. Trees that have from 1 foot to 2 feet of clear stem-, 
then a well thinned bushlike bead not exceeding 10 or 12 feet high> 
and consequently every part is readily reached without a ladder or 
steps, and the time saved alone in gathering fruit is an important con¬ 
sideration. For private gardens, and wheie land is planted in the 
market garden style of close cropping to utilise every foot of highly 
rented land, such trees are invaluable, and plenty of examples can now 
be seen where this has been carried out successfully. 
PROFITABLE PLANTING. 
It may not be out of place to give a few particulars respecting the 
plantation formed at Sawbridgeworth as experiments in profitable plant¬ 
ing, particularly as they have proved to be exceptionally satisfactory. 
In one large division of the nursery, comprising several acres, we find 
Apples and Plums planted in alternate rows, 12 feet apart, and the same 
distance between the trees, the spaces between the rows being occupied 
with two rows of Black Currants, the land being kept hoed and dugc 
From this plantation wonderful returns are secured, the Apples including 
the best market sorts, and the Plums are mainly Rivers’ Early Prolific, 
of which tons of fruit are produced every year. In another quarter of 
the latter, standard trees of good age, the distance between rows and 
trees is tbe same, but in a new plantation of Plums they are 6 feet 
apart in the rows, the latter being the full distance of 12 feet apart, 
thus admitting of the removal of every alternate tree when sufficiently 
advanced in growth, yet occupying the ground profitably in the mean¬ 
time. Then we come to a quarter of upright cordon Apples in rows 
6 feet apart, and 4 feet between the trees, which almost seems like 
crowding, yet space is found for a row of Gooseberries between each 
two lines of Apples. The latter have their growth pinched in summer, 
but are not much restricted until autumn, when they are cut hard back 
to the spurs in readiness for another season. Most of those examined 
were ten years old, in capital health, and yielding excellent crops of 
fine fruits. 
There are, of course, the usual nursery stocks of trained trees in all 
stages, vigorous young trees, and others more advanced in life, but still 
in fine condition for planting, and Mr. Rivers gives an instance of the 
of the close rooting properties of the Nonesuch stock in the case of trees 
of Cox’s Orange Pippin which, after remaining in one place for fourteen 
years, and not root-pruned, were safely removed, and are now, at twenty- 
four years of age, still in full bearing. Trees seven or eight years old 
are frequently removed. But we must turn to another department of 
the Sawbridgeworth Nurseries, and one for which they are widely 
noted—namely, 
THE ORCHARD HOUSE. 
Structures of this kind have caused a good deal of horticultural 
contention : they have been highly praised by some and condemned by. 
