2U0 
THE FLORIST. 
suffered in some places last winter. Gooseberry-trees have in many 
places suffered much from caterpillars. I keep my bushes clear by 
dusting them with powdered Htl ebcre as soon as 1 perceive any on 
them. Currant bushes have in many places suffered from fly, Straw¬ 
berries are very fine ; I never saw the British Queen so good. 
Cherries appear to be a general crop. Peaches and Nectarines may 
be set down as a complete failure. Old trees have in many places been 
completely killed last winter, and much of the young wood has been 
killed in many places. The trees here have escaped with little injury. 
This I attribute to several causes: in the first place, the situation of 
the garden is a dry one—the subsoil is of a gravelly porous nature ; 
and, in the next place, I never encourage over-luxuriant growth, but am 
satisfied with wood of moderate thickness, which, by being kept suffi¬ 
ciently thin and nailed in proper time, will get properly matured in 
ordinary seasons. 
Standard Pears are also a failure this season; trees on walls have a 
sprinkling of fruit. Some of the trees here have nice crops ; the sorts 
are—Easter Beurre, St. Germain, Glou Morceau, Swan Egg, Vicar of 
Winkfield, &c. Fig-trees suffered much last winter; the wood has in 
many places, even under a thick covering of straw, been killed. Part of 
one of the large trees here suffered in this manner ; the greater part is, 
however, alive, and has a good many fruit. 
Apricots are very thin in general; indeed they may be called a complete 
failure—or nearly so; the trees in some situations suffered from last 
winter. The trees here received no injury; they have a nice sprinkling 
of fruit on, but I cannot call it an average crop. 
The Apple crop is in general a light one. Cockpit is, however, a 
heavy crop; this is a sort much grown in this part of the country— 
it is a free-growing tree and bears abundantly. It keeps well, is an 
excellent baking Apple, and, when ripe, a good dessert fruit. There 
are several trees of it here, all full of fruit; most of them had heavy 
crops last year. 
Plums are a tolerable crop, full an average one on walls; on standards 
they are rather light, having suffered from the frosts at the beginning of 
May. 
The above is an accurate account of the state of the fruit at present 
in this part of the country. The deficiency 1 attribute, not to the pre¬ 
carious weather of the past spring, but, as I have already stated, to the 
want of light, the quantity of rain, the low temperature, and heavy crops 
of the past season. 
If now we attend properly to our trees, we may confidently look for¬ 
ward to a good crop in 1862. We must not, however, neglect our 
crop now, and put our chief trust in a favourable spring. We must 
remove all superfluous wood at once, nail all shoots that require it, and 
try to keep insects down, so as to have the foliage healthy as long as 
possible. Perseverance in attending properly to the trees now, will 
assuredly be rewarded by an abundant crop in 1862. 
M. Saul. 
Stourton, Yorkshire. 
