THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, December 25, I860. 
1/5 
water for two or three months. Then when the flower-buds 
show prominently remove them into a rather warmer but no 
moister place. The following are instances of the kinds of 
Orchids alluded to—Dendrobium nobile, coerulescens, Cam- 
bridgeanum, &c. Others that require a warm, dry treatment 
when in flower require only to be kept drier in this month. 
Such flower just before they begin to grow—as, for instance, 
Dendrobium aggregatum, formosum, and deusiflorum. They 
should be kept in a moderately warm but dry part of the house 
till the flowers begin to open. Most of the terrestrial Orchids will 
now begin to show symptoms of requiring rest, by their leaves 
turning yellow and stems dying. Set such at once in a cool, 
dry house. The genus Coelogyne flowers just when the pseudo¬ 
bulbs are fully formed: hence they should be kept growing 
till then. The blooming season for some of the best is January 
and February, though some bloom in summer. Observe their 
different seasons and treat them accordingly. During these 
summer months wage a constant warfare with insects, and, if 
possible, destroy them before they lay their eggs. By doing that 
the next year’s production of these enemies will be greatly 
reduced. T. Appleby. 
(To be continued.) 
THE FBUIT CROP OF THIS YEAR, 
Agricultural papers of all kinds teem with reports of the 
crops of different districts in the past season ; meteorologists, also, 
from time to time exchange notes in a similar way ; while our 
florist friends, with few exceptions, send up a report detailing a 
series of disappointments, failures, vexations, and losses ; public 
bodies also furnish reports to the general reader how matters go 
on with them : consequently the term “report” has a wide appli¬ 
cation, and there is no harm at our calling it into requisition, 
and inquiring, through the pages of Tiie Cottage Gardener, 
how the fruit crop has turned out in the various districts in the 
kingdom. So thus some general conclusion may be come to 
whether we may term the past season a fruitful one or not; and 
we may learn, by comparing notes, how much the past has differed 
from preceding summers in its effects on the growth of trees, 
ripening of fruit, and the other features which constitute a good 
fruit season from one of an opposite kind. And though I by no , 
means assume the report I am about to give of the crop of ordi- | 
nary hardy fruits in this neighbourhood (Mid-Kent), where large ! 
quantities are grown is the same as has been obtained elsewhere, I 
still if those living in other fruit-growing districts were to come 
forward and state their conditions, we might be enabled to judge 
of the relative value of the grumbling on the one hand, and 
congratulation on the other, we meet with on the subject: there¬ 
fore, without further preface, we commence with the most 
common as well as the most useful of all our hardy fruits—one 
that will always be a popular favourite. 
Apple. —The crop of this fruit has varied considerably ; but, 
so far as quantity is concerned, there certainly has been a full 
average, but the quality is in most cases very inferior—worse than 
I ever remember to have seen, except perhaps in 1841. The trees 
certainly were in a tolerably good condition for supporting a 
crop, so far as the well-maturing of last-year’s wood was con¬ 
cerned. And this is of much more importance than is gene¬ 
rally supposed—in fact, it is to this that I attribute the well¬ 
blooming of so many shrubs and trees in the pa9t season ; and 
the strength and perfectness by which the buds of the Apple were 
formed last autumn materially assisted its setting, in rather 
adverse weather, in the last spring—and when once a crop of fruit 
is fairly set there is generally a crop. Cold dull weather follow¬ 
ing in June, the progress was tardy, and the fruit as well as the 
trees were checked in their early growth. This check has been 
in no degree compensated for by the subsequent weather we had 
all the summer ; for, with the exception of the first ten days or 
so in July, and about the same in the early part of October, the 
whole season has been wet and ungenial. The result is that 
many of the Apples were cracked and spotted, and some have been 
maggot-eaten ; but the latter are not more numerous than in the 
generality of seasons, while the fruit that is perfect is very small, 
and the table kinds deficient of flavour. Nevertheless, there is 
no lack of fruit, such as it is ; and the crop being ripened late, it 
has kept tolerably well. I very much doubt if we have much of 
a crop next year ; for, with the exhausting crop of the present 
summer, and unaided by that genial warm weather which alike 
perfects wood and fruit, it is much to be feared the little blossom 
we have next spring will be deficient of the vigour requisite to 
produce perfect fruit. 
Pear. —Most of the remarks given on the Apple apply to this 
fruit, excepting that the early kinds were nearly a total failure, 
and the whole exceedingly small, cracked, spotted, and deformed. 
Standard Pears are certainly a worse sample than Apples, and 
in flavour the deficiency is even more apparent than in the 
Apple. This is easily to be accounted for:—the climate of this 
country is, at the best, scarcely bright and sunny enough for the 
Pear, and especially in such seasons as the past one: consequently, 
the fruit is exceedingly small, poor in flavour, and much of it 
cracked, deformed, or imperfect, as stated above. The wall fruit 
is certainly not so bad as that on the open standard trees, but 
there is nowhere that flavour we have had in the last few years. 
The quantity of late kinds has certainly been a full average, but 
the high winds thinned them much, and the size being small the 
basket filled very slowly. The Crasanne, Williams’ Bon Chretien, 
Ducliesse d’Angoideme, and the Bergamots have been very in¬ 
different. Marie Louise has been a trifle better, but the flavour 
of all has fallen short of what it is in a usual way. I may here 
remark that with us several Pears that bear and ripen their fruit 
on open standards in ordinary years are much better flavoured 
than the same kinds grown against a west or north wall; but 
this year] it has been reversed—the wall fruit are the best and 
largest. 
Plums. —It is difficult to speak with confidence on these, as 
they varied so much ; but in a general way it may be stated that 
where the crop of last year was good, that of the present one was 
a failure; but there has been a tolerable supply of Plums, such 
as they were, of some of the kinds, but the best ones have been 
scarce. Damsons have been almost a total failure, and as a whole 
the Plum crop must be considered under an average. The kinds 
most grown as open standards are—the Diamond, Mogul, Royal 
Dauphin, Orleans, and some others having local names. In 
favourable seasons Green Gages are tolerably good, but there 
have been few this year. The yellow Plums are not much grown 
as standards, and the fruit of all kinds had much to endure from 
the high winds. Incnvidually, the specimens have been better 
than the Pears, though falling far short of what the same kinds 
were last year. 
Cherries. —Very indifferent, especially the early kinds; but 
all kinds have been bad, the Morellos against walls being 
perhaps the best, but then short of last year in size and quality. 
There was plenty of blossom, and, in general, plenty of fruit 
set; but the cold ungenial weather that followed stunted their 
growth, and the rain at the time of their ripening cracked 
them very much, so that there were very few perfect fruit of the 
May Duke, Black Heart, and Bigarreau sections : consequently, 
the Cherry crop, if not set down as a failure in quantity, was 
certainly so in everything else, the Morellos alone on walls, as 
above stated, being excepted. 
Filberts. —In some favoured spots these were not amiss, but 
in general they ripened badly, being much infected with the 
maggot, and the nut itself when sound seemed deficient of 
that flavour which characterises it in more favourable seasons. 
The Cob is perhaps worse than the Filbert, and there have been 
great complaints of both falling very much during the growing 
season, so that at harvesting time the quantity really fit for 
storing away was very small indeed. As a rule, therefore, we 
may place the Filbert crop as much under the average. 
Walnut. —Although this is hardly to be classed as a culti¬ 
vated fruit, yet its being generally esteemed and much grown in 
some districts, it may be stated here that, so far as I can learn, 
the quality of the crop grown in this neighbourhood is really 
worse than that of any other kind of fruit I know of. Even as 
early as the time for picking the green fruit for pickling (in 
July), they were all spotted, bruised, deformed, or damaged, 
and, of course, have never reached pei'fection. It is hardly fair 
to say the high winds occasioned all this, for trees in sheltered 
places suffered also. The same ungenial atmosphere which 
denied its beneficial influence to so many other productions was 
equally severe on this, and English Walnuts are, I should say, 
but thinly scattered over the land. Here (Linton), there are 
none. 
Chestnuts. —Though still less a cultivated fruit than the 
Walnut, I only allude to them here to show that they, too, are 
sufferers from the same universal cause which has shortened our 
supply of so many things we have had in such abundance in 
years gone by. Last year several score bushels were gathered 
here (Linton). This season I do not think we shall have one. 
