134 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Febrnary 14,18S& 
Some Pears are as round as Apples, and some Apples are oblong, as if 
approaching the shape of Pears, but I have never seen such perfect pear- 
shaped Apples as were borne by the tree in question. They appear to 
come, as Mr. King remarked, “ anyhow ; Pears being dotted about 
among the Apples all over the tree.” We must wait another crop to 
see if the peculiarity is maintained, and if the variety of Apple can be 
identified. 
INDIFFERENT FRUIT CULTURE. 
Turning from the curious to the useful, which is more in my line, I 
inquired why so little fruit appeared to be grown in the eastern counties, 
and why the samples exhibited at the Apple and Pear Congresses at 
Chiswick were so low in average merit. There were good examples 
undoubtedly, but many inferior both in size and colour. Notable for 
superiority was the beautiful Essex Apple Saltmarsh’s Queen, and the 
large and handsome Sandringham from Norfolk ; but on the whole the 
fruit from the five counties (Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, 
and Lincolnshire) was in the bulk unsatisfactory. Pears were, generally 
speaking, much better than Apples, many of the collections being very 
good indeed. I was informed the soil and climate were not suitable for 
fruit along the east coast. No doubt the first brush of keen easterly 
winds is felt there, but they reach a long way inland all the same, and 
I think are not unknown in Kent, Surrey, and other “favoured” counties. 
I could not regard the climate as wholly to blame, for if the spring winds 
are cold the summers are bright in the east if anywhere, ant the rainfall 
the lightest of any district in the kingdom. Then as to soil; while there 
are inferior tracts, there are others far greater in extent of a rich alluvial 
character, and there is no better corn land and better farming to be found 
than in East Anglia. I have yet to learn that land capable of growing 
from 5 to 7 quarters of Wheat per acre will not grow good fruit, and a 
climate that will ripen grain and other seeds cannot be so very bad. 
Nowhere are so many seeds grown as in the eastern counties, and yet 
orchards are few. It has not been the habit or custom to give attention 
to fruit culture, and that I am convinced is the reason, and neither the 
soil nor the climate, for the paucity of fruit in the great and important 
district referred to. Travelling down by the Great Eastern line to Ips¬ 
wich we scarcely see an orchard, and then northwards to Bury they are 
few and uacared for. When the best varieties of fruit trees are well 
grown they bear good crops of good fruit, as a few examples proved. 
SUCCESSFUL PRACTICE. 
Mr. Spencer King had well-grown trees, good crops, and excel’ent 
fruit, of Plums and Pears especially, the best varieties having been 
obtained from Sawbridgeworth in the form of cordons, bushes, and 
standards. These, in ground well worked and the soil mulched, did not 
dislike their position ; and as evidence of climate, in the same garden is 
a lean-to vinery, unheated. Black Hamburgh Grapes were well ripened, 
anl Muscats by no means inferior, while against the front wall outside, 
Tomatoes ripened good crops, even in the dull cold season of 1888. The 
climate, then, is not miserable, and the soil not unfertile. All that is 
wanted is good cultivation applied to well chosen varieties, and fruit 
can be grown in the east satisfactorily and profitably. 
MR. GARROD'S FRUIT GARDEN. 
Thinking, however, the small garden just referred to was scarcely 
adequate for determining the point, I asked if there were no good 
orchards within reach. Evidently there were not many, but after a 
pause the “fruit garden” of a Mr. Robert Garrod was mentioned. As 
no time could be lost a cab was requisitioned, and a drive of a 
mile or so landed us at the gate. A glance sufficed to show what skill 
and industry could accomplish. The substantial and commodious 
residence was covered from base to roof with vertical cordon Pears in the 
best of condition in thirty-seven varieties, not all bearing, as may be 
expected, but several having good crops of fine fruit. They were grown 
for comparison, and as a source of interest, not for profit there, and 
were a great ornament to the dwelling. But we had only to step into 
the garden to see what cultivation could do in the production of fruit 
for sale, and the bountiful crops could not fail to be highly remunera¬ 
tive. Bush Pear trees informally grown and not rigidly pruned, but 
the branches thinly disposed, were laden with fine well fed fruit. Mr. 
Garrod, as a practical gardener, trenched his land in the right way, 
planted good, hardy, free-bearing varieties, and had his reward. Before 
being thus intelligently cultivated this particular plot of ground was 
like that surrounding it, and the contrast was most striking ; indeed, 
some within the enclosure had not yet been brought into full fertility, 
but was being improved by degrees. To say that the industrious owner 
has doubled the value of his land by sound culture would be a poor 
appraisement; he has much more than quadrupled it, as was apparent in 
looking over the hedge. The Pears are not like the grand specimens 
grown by Mr. A. Pettigrew at Cardiff Castle, nor never will be probably, 
for Mr. Garrod’s are on the Quince, the Marquis of Bute’s on the Pear 
stock. The Ipswich grower had some on the Pear, but could not make 
them answer, the fruit being small and colourless, while those on the 
Quince were in every respect good. At Cardiff the reverse is the case, 
yet in appearance the texture of the soil is about the same in both 
gardens, though probably the Ipswich ground is the colder. Whatever 
the difference, the facts are as stated. 
CANKER AND GRAFTING. 
Several of Mr. Garrod’s fruit trees afford conclusive evidence of the 
efficacy of grafting in curing canker. Some of the trees were almost 
“ cankered to death,” but by establishing other free-growing sorts on 
them, the stems are covered with bright healthy bark, entirely new 
layers, that have gradually reached to the ground, encasing the old 
stems that were a mass of ulceration. In some instances one side of a 
stem is as healthy as a stem can be, the other, not yet covered with fresh 
cellular layers from the scions, being practically dead. The work of 
renovation is plainly visible in various stages, and there are examples in 
which the cure of canker by grafting alone is complete and absolute. 
Nothing has been done to the soil, which, however, as above indicated, is 
good ; but clearly the cause of the canker of certain of the trees was 
not in the soil but inherent in the varieties. Frost may have ruptured 
the tissue, or Mr. J. Hiam would say insects did the mischief ; but what¬ 
ever “ did it,” grafting cured it, and there seems to be no signs of a 
return of the malady. It might not be equally effective with all trees 
in all soils, and the remarks of “ M. T.” (page 108) are highly worthy of 
attention. Mr. Garrod’s successful practice is all the same worthy of 
record. It is not the first satisfactory evidence I have seen of old 
cankered trees being made young again by grafting with stronger and 
hardier varieties, and there are thousands of trees in the country that 
might be similarly improved. I do not know how Mr. Tonk’s manure 
would have acted in Mr. Garrod’s garden, but one thing is clear, some of 
the trees did not need it, and others were restored without any applica¬ 
tion of chemicals to the roots ; and though these are often of great 
value for fruit trees that need something which the soil does not con¬ 
tain, it would seem, if Mr. Tonk's theory is sound, that some trees 
require different food than others, tastes apparently differing in trees as 
in cultivators. The subject of restoring unhealthy fruit trees is in¬ 
teresting and important, and it is a question if the value of grafting as 
a restorative is sufficiently appreciated and practised. As the grafting 
season is approaching, perhaps some readers will give the matter further 
consideration, and I leave it in their hands. 
RINGING FRUIT TREE3. 
The old-fashioned practice of “ ringing ” certain branches of fruit 
trees is practised by Mr. Garrod, and he can point to its improving their 
bearing and enlarging the fruit. It consists in removing a strip of 
bark from round the stem, baring the wood for an inch or so, which 
checks the flow of sap to some extent, but more particularly its return, 
and the fruit is enlarged accordingly. Some persons prefer ligatures of 
wire very tightly bound round the branches before the blossoms open, 
removing them after the fruit is ripe. It is an interesting experiment 
that may be tried on branches that have a tendency to grow luxuriantly. 
1 was pleased with my call at Ipswich, which is a clean, busy, 
flowery town, a town of gardens ; and am much indebted to Mr. 
Spencer King for his courtesy and attention, also to Mr. Garrod for the 
ready facility he afforded for an inspection of his excellent work. It 
was a short visit, for I had to rush off to Bury for Nowton to keep an 
appointment with an old friend, and one of the ablest men who ever 
enriched the pages of the Journal of Horticulture. —W. 
WINTER CUCUMBERS AND VENTILATION. 
Until I read Mr. Bardney’s note at page 72 on the above I had in¬ 
tended not to make any further remarks on this subject. However, 
before referring to his criticisms, I beg to assure Mr. Coombe that 1 
have not “ evidently overlooked the fact that the respiratory functions 
of plants and animals are conducted on widely different principles.” But 
the same end is reached by both plants and animals ; the latter breathe 
and inhale fresh air through the mouth and nostrils, while the former 
perform the same necessary functions through the pores on the surface 
of the leaves. I hope he may live long enough to learn that the respira¬ 
tion of fresh air as admitted to the forcing house by practical gardeners 
is quite as necessary to the health of plants as it is to that of animals, 
and to be convinced that the carrying out of such an essential cultural 
detail by skilful cultivators is no “ farce.” I should like to advise your 
correspondent in future when entering into a discussion not to mis¬ 
represent facts. Here is a case in point. Mr. Coombe says, “ Mr. Ward 
admits by his note that experienced and skilful cultivators give air 
during the month of March and the following five or six months to 
prevent the internal temperature in their houses getting too hot from- 
the sun’s rays,” then adding, with a view to making his argument good, 
that apparently he, Mr. Ward, “ does not give air except in winter for the 
purpose of supplying the plants with a theoretically absolute require¬ 
ment for their existence,” concluding his remarks on this point by pro¬ 
nouncing such a method of procedure as being decidedly “unscientific” 
in its application. 
Why did not your correspondent give the context ? What I really 
did say (see page 13, and fourteen lines from the bottom of my note) 
was “ Experienced and thoughtful cultivators ventilate in accordance 
with circumstantial requirements, and not by rote. They give air, in 
addition to the reasons already given—the supplying of fresh air to the 
plants—to prevent the internal temperature of their houses, pits, and 
frames getting too hot by the action of the sun’s rays on the glass 
during the month of March and the following five or six months.” Mr. 
Coombe says in reference to what he terms, in so many words, our 
“ granted knowledge of what the chief constituents of fresh air are, and 
also of what particular portions of it the plants require,” adding, to 
explain my meaning, “ we are aware that respiration is performed by 
plants in a certain way, and contain constituents of the atmosphere 
which are required more than others—carbonic acid, for instance.” In 
my opinion it would have been much better for your correspondent to 
have stated in so many words what “ particular portions of fresh air. 
