PROCEEDINGS OP THE PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OP NATURAL SCIENCE. 
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from 80 lb. to 90 lb. In ordinary seasons, from average¬ 
sized trees, 2 to 5 hampers is a common crop. Even 
at a Id per lb., this would pay well, and in a great 
measure prevent foreign competition, as it would not pay 
to import at this low figure ; and were orchards attended 
to as they might and should be, they would pay still 
better. I have been through most of the orchards in the 
Carse, and in the great majority of them there is very 
little attention paid to pruning and manuring. Some even 
go the length of saying that orchards do not require 
manuring. Now, let me give an example to the con¬ 
trary. Some three years ago, I think, we had a fair amount 
of fruit blossom, but, on account of the previous summer 
being a comparatively sunless one, the wood was not well 
ripened, and the fruit buds were consequently weak, and 
when the spring frosts came they almost all dropped off for 
want of strength to set the fruit. A small orchard at 
the Grange of Errol had just been leased by a new 
tenant and the ground manured and ploughed, with 
the following result. The manuring gave the weak 
fruit buds a spurt, and enabled them to set fruit, as it is 
termed, and when I went through it in the autumn (it is 
about 8 acres in extent) I saw more fruit in it than in all 
the other Carse orchards put together. But least it 
may be thought that I am mistaken in my conclusions, 
let me give another example. In another orchard, 
under a different tenant, with only the public road 
between them, about a third part was manured and 
ploughed up, while the remainder was left in grass, with 
the result that the part manured had a fair average 
crop, while the part left untouched had only a very small 
sprinkling of fruit. This is surely proof of the benefit to be 
obtained from good cultivation. 
I now pass on to the next part of my subject, viz., 
“ The Cultivation of Fruit in Pleasure Grounds.” How 
it is that fruit trees in this country are so rigidly excluded 
from the lawns and pleasure grounds of our landed pro¬ 
prietors, is more than I can understand. I cannot 
conceive of anything that would more conduce to the 
beautifying of pleasure grounds than the cultivation of 
fruit trees. With their variously-coloured blossoms in 
spring, and their heavily-fruited branches of every shade 
and hue in autumn, they could not fail to be ornamental. 
Fruit trees could be planted in almost every conceiv¬ 
able way in pleasure grounds, to suit the taste of the 
cultivator; in squares, lines, or curves, on arches or 
espaliers, or standards, or dwarfs, or mixed with laurels or 
forest trees. On the Continent it is quite common to 
have them mixed with forest trees, as will be seen from 
the following extract from the Garden of 21st Feby., 1880: 
I (says J. Cornhill) consider that fruit trees have some claim 
to be considered ornamental. In Germany, where flowering 
trees and shrubs are held in higher estimation, and are more ex¬ 
tensively planted, than in this country, the line between the fruit 
and pleasure ground is not so closely drawn as in England. 
There are often seen fruit trees intermixed .with ordinary trees 
and shrubs, and I consider that this form of arrangement has 
much to recommend it. In the first place, the rather cheerless 
aspect which shrubberies so often present during the early 
months of the year is much relieved thereby; and then, again, 
trees thus placed often yield a portion of fruit, when those in 
more exposed situations have been chilled by cutting winds or 
sharp frosts. I have frequently remarked that an apple or pear 
tree, which by chance has found a place in the shrubbery, lias 
produced fruit when those plantations most relied on have, 
owing to the inclemency of the season, completely failed. There 
are probably few more beautiful floral objects than an orchard 
in full bloom, and few flowering trees or shrubs can rival the 
apple or pear, with their showy blossoms. When so planted 
that they are in the vicinity of evergreens, especially such as are 
distinguished by the sombre hue of their foliage, the effect is 
very beautiful. I have had the good fortune to reside in 
some of the finest fruit-producing districts in Europe, and 
have often thought that nothing could exceed in peaceful 
beauty the aspect of the Rheinthal and Necker valley dur¬ 
ing the flowering season of the fruit trees. I have a vivid re¬ 
collection of once standing upon an eminence in the vicinity of 
the Vosges mountains from whence seventeen villages could be 
counted, each one embowered in fruit trees, and lying snugly in 
valleys surrounded by hills clothed with lines of sombre hue,— 
the whole forming a scene worthy of the most gifted painter’s 
brush. The valley is also extremely beautiful during the month 
of May, studded with little hamlets, nestling in the shelter of 
the hills, and surrounded with fruit trees of fine proportions, 
thus forming a series of delightful floral pictures of which the 
eye never seems to weary. In the palace garden of Leidwigsburg 
there are whole avenues of fruit trees, which, so far from 
appearing misplaced, rather seemed to add to the attraction of 
the place. It is certain there are many situations in gardens in 
this country, such as the wild garden, the shrubbery, or the 
half-annexed portion of the pleasure ground, where a few fruit 
trees might be introduced with pleasure and profit to the owner. 
There are, of course, some varieties which, by their vigour and 
manner of growth, are better fitted than others for the purpose 
and only such should be planted. 
Another writer in the Garden, “ J. G.,” under the heading 
“ Fruit Trees as Ornaments,’’says :— 
It is singular how persistently we cling to old notions, one of 
which is that the useful and ornamental are rarely combined, 
and that when it is so the useful character of a tree, shrub, or 
plant is sufficient to prevent it from being employed in an orna¬ 
mental way. We are all acquainted with the beauty of fruit 
trees, which is quite equal, if not superior, to that of many 
ornamental trees grown wholly for their flowers. Yet how sel¬ 
dom do we find a fruit tree in our pleasure grounds, large or 
