11G THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, November 18, 1856. 
was moderately good were not always favoured by 
shelter or other outward circumstances ; but the failure 
seems to have been directed by an unaccountable ca¬ 
priciousness, which only left a solitary small plot of 
trees here and there, in some cases pretty well loaded, 
in others indifferently ; but the crop, as a whole, is 
nearly a total failure. The plots where there have 
been fruit are so small in extent, that I only mention 
them to show that the failure has not been total; but 
I am not aware of any orchard exceeding a couple of 
I acres which contains any fruit worth mentioning; con¬ 
sequently, Apples are selling at very high prices, and 
1 for prime lots fabulous sums are reported to be given. 
J The general grower is a heavy loser, and I have heard 
i of one who offered his whole growth of forty acres at 
one penny per acre, and I know plenty of others not 
worth more than that sum. On the other hand, a small 
grower, occupying little more than one acre, refused a 
hundred pounds per acre for his growth, although his 
neighbours’ within a quarter of a mile were total failures. 
Even the early kinds, as Codlins, and some other 
inferior Apples, which generally bear well, have mostly 
failed this season. 
It would not be of much use recording failures or 
| losses if something might not be learnt by the recital, 
but in the present case there seems little to learn ; for, 
| serious as the loss has been to many, there did not seem 
any mode of preventing it, as it was equally fatal in all 
soils and situations. The few places escaping might, 
perhaps, be favoured in some degree, as to shelter, at 
the precise time when “ the blight,” as it is called, 
visited the trees in May. But every place so sheltered 
was not equally fortunate, so that we are at a loss to 
account for it on any of the known laws applicable to 
ordinary cases of failure. Neither can we trace it 
back to any lack of vigour in the trees, arising from im¬ 
perfect ripening of the wood last year, for the crop then 
was light, and the autumn not unfavourable; and al¬ 
though the month of May was dull, and much colder 
than usual, it was more free from actual frosts than it 
usually is, and, consequently, that much-blamed source 
of failure could not be regarded as the one applicable 
this time. 
Unaccountable as it may appear, it is nevertheless 
true, that many eminent fruit-growers, who are old 
enough to remember the crops they witnessed in years 
gone by, insist upon it that either the climate must be 
undergoing some alteration, or that some other change 
is going on, which has rendered it impossible for the 
! Apple to bear so well as it did fifty years ago. By this 
i it is not intended to confine their remarks to the variety 
I grown, which we all know must be deteriorated, but 
that Apple orchards in general do not produce so plen¬ 
tifully now as they did in the beginning of the present 
| century; and certainly the number of failures would 
seem to warrant that assumption, for some orchards of 
great promise have borne very little fruit for many 
years, even where they seemingly possessed every re- 
| quisite likely to make them do so ; and assuredly the 
| present generation does not lack skill nor enterprise in 
j the cultivation of orchard fruits; consequently, the 
i change, if change there is, must be of that natural 
; kind over which the cultivator has no control. 
There is a general opinion abroad in many places 
that trees which bear a full crop one year are not likely 
j to do so the next, but that those not having any crop at 
I all are likely to bear well the ensuing season. The 
i plausibility of this theory is often verified, and some 
varieties are noted for bearing every second year. Still 
■ this alternation is liable to be broken into by other cir¬ 
cumstances, and all, or nearly all, have shared alike this 
season. 
There is a feeling becoming rather general here, that 
either the longer prevalence of easterly winds, or some 
other cause of that sort, acting on this part of Kent, 
has tended to destroy the prospects of the fruit grown 
during the last few years, to an extent not known in 
years long since gone by ; but, on examining my register 
of the weather during May in the last seven years, I do 
not see any reason for attributing the recent failures to 
that source; and as it is evident the mischief must all 
have occurred during that month, I give a few rough 
notes indicating the number of days in which the wind 
was east and north-east, and the general features of the 
month. 
WIND. 
East. 
No. of Days. 
North-east. 
No. of Days. 
General Remarks. 
1850 
1 
9 
Dull and cold in middle, 
end warmer. 
1851 
0 
11 
Dry and chilly, some frosts 
in beginning. 
1852 
0 
11 
Tolerably fine, after some 
sharp frosts the first 
week. 
1853 
6 
13 
Dull, cold, and wet; end 
finer. 
1854 
2 
4 
Generally dull and cold, 
with some heavy rains. 
1855 
0 
14 
Generally dull and cold; 
things late. 
1856 
1 
7 
More remarkable for the 
great quantity of rain 
that fell than anything 
else; in other respects 
the weather medium. 
From the above it will be seen that the May of 1856 
did not differ much in general features from the same 
month of former years; but somehow the Apple and 
Pear crop became a total failure, and the trees all but 
killed, as many that were expected to be in vigorous 
health had not a single leaf on them by the middle of 
June; and though they afterwards put forth leaves, it 
was evident the constitution of the plant had under¬ 
gone a shock which will hasten its ultimate decay It 
is, however, surprising how well some of them look 
again; and though they are later than usual in ripening 
their leaves, still there is hope of the buds that are 
set being perfect. Plums did not suffer so much as 
Apples and Pears; but Filberts were, in many cases, as 
bad, and in some places the small fruits also fell a 
victim to the same misfortune, but generally these were 
tolerably abundant. 
As the failure this season seems to be general 
throughout the kingdom, it is useless seeking for any 
local cause here; neither does it seem likely that 
any correct notion of its cause will ever be obtained. 
Suffice it, therefore, to urge on those having large 
breadths of fruit plantation to use the knife freely, as 
it is likely the super-abundance of bloom-buds set 
will be all the better for a thinning. The spade and 
mattock might also be beneficially employed in a like 
way, for many orchards are ruinously thick; and be 
assured the best way to secure a crop of such fruits is 
to do well by the trees the preceding year, as to that 
cause may very likely be attributed the more general 
success of the cottager’s trees this season. As a tree in 
vigorous health can more easily resist the attacks of 
insects and other diseases than one in a weaker state, 
and a super-abundance of blossom is also objectionable, 
do not spare the knife and saw where the specimens 
are large and seemingly overloaded with fruit-buds, as it 
is likely a little attention that way may be of service, 
not next season only, but in after years as well. 
J. Robson. 
