70 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
October 3, 1885. 
trees we do not mean tlie ordinary stiff hard-pruned 
specimens seen at Chiswick and in many gardens. The 
trees, whilst naturally retaining the pyramid form, are 
yet free-growing, receiving only such pruning, and that 
is not much, as may be needful to ensure proper thin¬ 
ness and respectable proportions. Always a handsome 
Pear, Louise Bonne is here not only very handsome but 
richly coloured, and many of the trees—certainly we 
could have picked out dozens—that thus laden with 
fruit were perfect pictures. Where this Pear is found 
on free stocks, although its growth is not at all over- 
vigorous, yet it fails to give anything like so good a 
crop as the quince stock produces, neither is the sample 
so fine. Overwhelmingly the argument, as shown in 
the crops relatively, is in favour of dwarfing stocks, and 
curiously enough, also, Mr. Thompson, in reply to a 
query to that effect, mentions that the shallow-rooted 
quince-worked trees have withstood the drought far 
better than have the deep free-rooters. 
Some kinds too, curiously enough, seemed to have 
suffered from drought even more than others, as for 
instance the Citron des Cannes, of which there are 
several standards. The crop of this kind was light, 
but the growth seems to have been much stunted by 
drought, though other trees close by have borne out 
well. Evidently on the Quince Louis Bonne is a grand 
market Pear, and well worthy of large and good .culture. 
That handsome kind, Doyenne du Comice, makes free 
growt h as pyramids,. and carries fine fruit, but' the 
crop this season is not large. I-t is interesting to note 
that this and that fine Pear, Durandeau, are also doing 
well as pyramids, though carrying fine fruit this season 
are yet both cropping light, whilst, as a rule, they crop 
freely. Thus we see about, in what is known as a good 
Pear year, many kinds sparse in cropping, now fruiting 
fairly well, whilst some others which fruit generally 
are this season light These are, after all, amongst our 
most valuable kinds, because they give crops when 
most needed. There is here the original tree of Duran¬ 
deau, a pyramid, imported by the firm of Messrs. Lee 
& Co. trom Prance, and planted in the Hounslow 
garden. 
Beurre Diel is represented by several very 'fine 
pyramids, which, if on the Quince, show very robust 
growth, and are handsome trees. These are carrying 
good crops of clean fruit This kind is but a moderate 
fruiter as a rule, but when good, makes a valuable 
market Pear. Beurre de la Assomption, on the other 
hand, blooms profusely constantly, but seldom sets a 
fruit. One tree has very stiff erect growth, and of a 
stout solid kind, but it seems valueless as a pyramid. 
This is on the Quince, as also is Soldat Esperen, 
which on medium-sized pyramids produces fair crops, 
and this season a good one. The fine Pitmaston 
Duehesse d’Angouleme, produces handsome pyramid 
trees, but fruits rarely ; it is evidently a wall Pear, and 
that only. One other Pear for notice is Adele de 
St. Denis, a pretty tapering russetty kind, medium 
sized, and of a rich melting flesh ; ripens in December. 
This fruits well on the Quince. Although these Pears 
are all growing in a walled in enclosure, yet they are 
all treated just as if planted in an ordinary market 
Orchard. 
A few Apples are noteworthy, that grand kind, 
Erogmore Prolific, especially giving a splendid sample 
from trees on the English paradise. This is one of the 
best Apples for market growers to take in hand, and 
plant as dwarfs in large quantities. It is a fact, that 
like Stirling Castle, and one or two other kinds, it 
seems never to miss a season. There is here on stan¬ 
dards a very fine Lord Derby-shaped Apple, called 
both Russian Transparent and Harvey’s Defiance ; its 
clear glossy skin has no doubt favoured the former 
appellation. 'Without doubt it is a grand Apple, and 
as grown here seems worthy of wide cultivation. 
Wellingtons are on moderate-sized standards, fruiting 
heavily, some fruits here and there of wondrous size ; 
a better sample cannot be found generally on similar 
trees this season, the heads being in many cases almost 
borne to the ground by the weight of fruit. 
A distinct and very pretty Apple is Galloway Pippin ; 
this fruits in clusters very much as Golden Koble does, 
but the fruits are flatter in form, and somewhat specked 
with grey ; it keeps well to Christmas, and is then ex¬ 
cellent ; it is a heavy cropper. King of the Pippins fruits 
freely on standards, and the samples are good ; so are also 
those of Cox’s Orange Pippin on the lower boughs, but 
on the top ones fruit is very thin. Curiously enough, 
“Cox’s” very much suffered from drought, when 
“Kings” showed no distress. Warner’s King is also 
fruiting finely ; it is worked on to Lord Burleigh on 
the paradise, a kind that proved valueless, and has 
been replaced by one of the finest of all autumn Apples. 
-- 
Scottish Gardening. 
Fruit-gathering. —In such a season as this, when 
fruit seems ts be abundant almost everywhere, the task 
of storing the crops is not a light or insignificant part 
of the cultivator’s work, and where the fruit has to be 
kept in large quantities, either for sale or home use, the 
labour of storing it must not be left to careless or inex¬ 
perienced hands, otherwise waste and disappointment 
will be the reward of wanton carelessness. The heavy 
gales which have been so prevalent all over the country 
during the last few weeks have been disastrous to the 
fruit crops, and many orchardists who have been looking 
forward to a good harvest of fruit, and to realising a 
fair remuneration for their labour and value from their 
land, have to deplore much mischief done. 
Much has been written on the extension system of 
fruit tree culture, and we have nothing to say against 
what has been said, but would remark that while we 
have an orchard of extra large trees mostly loaded with 
fruit, much of which has been hurled from the branches 
by the hundredweight, we never feel safe without an 
auxiliary in the form of a selection of trees of smaller 
size, kept dwarf, say from 6 to 12 ft., by root-pruning 
and very little use of the knife to the wood. These 
with us are mostly standards which have been lifted 
and re-planted, or otherwise manipulated, to cause stiff 
fruitful growth. The stems average 3 to 5 ft. high, 
and the trees are circular and most of them cropped 
close to their stems with vegetables, gooseberries, or 
some other useful plant. The crops are much heavier 
than they should be, but they are so every season ; 
therefore we let well alone. The wind, through having 
less play on the dwarf trees, has done comparatively 
little damage, the few fruits thrown down being barely 
enough to meet our daily demand. 
We also note that a number of trees which have been 
dwarfed, say from 20 or 30 ft. to 9 ft., are carrying a 
heavier load of fruit, vastly superior to what they did 
when of larger dimensions. These trees about two and 
a half years ago and less, had all their bottom roots cut 
clean off, and the space filled up with fresh soil, lime, 
rubbish, &c., and rammed as firm as beaters and 
strong men could do it. The ragged heads of trees 
at the same time were removed, leaving the tree like 
a cluster of large stags’ horns ; short and stiff growth, 
all over, with fruit buds accompanied with large 
healthy leaves, and abundance of much finer fruit, 
has been the result. The “let-alone” system has 
arguments in its favour, but so has the dwarf method 
of cultivating when not abused. By the removal of the 
sluggish acting bottom roots, now supplemented by 
an abundance of feeders, drawn upwards by the use of 
rich surface dressings of moist farm-yard manure 
mixed with good loam, we have all that we can 
reasonably -wish for. Where canker and dead growths 
manifested their- evil characteristics, there is now 
healthy wood and clusters of fruit; and a further 
remark may not be objectionable, Apples which were 
green and specked, such as would not keep any length 
of time, are now well coloured, either yellow or crimson, 
and free from spot or blemish. I have for many years 
observed, that the surface rooting of trees have invariably 
been followed by such desirable results as indicated by 
these, especially in cool and northern districts. Ama¬ 
teurs and others should not hurriedly discard old 
rubbishy trees, as a little patience and perseverance 
may give substantial rewards, and they might at no 
distant day, when seasons are fruitful as at present, 
have on their renovated dwarf sturdy trees crops of fine 
fruit, which must be the case before the art of harvest¬ 
ing fruit can be of tangible value. 
In the extensive fruit districts of England (Kent, 
Worcester, Hereford, and Devonshire) harvesting and 
marketing is generally well understood by the peasantry. 
In the three latter counties windfalls and inferior Apples 
are made into cider, and the same class of Pears are 
manufactured into perry, and what are ripe or injured so 
that they will not keep are sorted and sentto market; but 
where there are good sound fruit which can be kept late 
they are placed in dry positions, airy at first to clear 
out moisture, and then the stores are kept close and dark. 
It would surprise some private growers did they see the 
simple methods of storing Apples (Pears are not 
generally suitable for such a method of storing). 
Long ridges are sometimes seen placed on floors, as one 
often places the Potatos, and a quantity of diy straw is 
laid over them ; the less handling after the fruit is in 
position for the season the better it will keep. When 
the period of ripening is at hand the fruit is carefully 
picked over, keeping faulty ones separate from the 
good marketable fruit, and sizes are selected, the finest 
of course arranged so that purchasers may have what 
they require by paying the best prices. Good kinds 
such as Blenheim Orange, Ribston, Margil, and others, 
are sold at the highest prices, and in our opinion are vastly 
superior to the best Americans we have ever seen. 
The barrel system of transit has taught us many 
lessons as to how to pack and keep fruit, we have known 
supplies taken almost daily during whole winters from 
barrels just as they arrived across the Atlantic. The 
waste was of a nominal character, the fruit generally 
showy and suitable for dessert, of pleasant flavour, but 
insignificent compared with well-ripened first-class 
English fruit, or those taken from walls in Scotland. 
We never saw finer Ribstons than those grown aud 
sometimes exhibited by the late Mr. Lees of Tyningham. 
His system of keeping Apples was very successful, as 
shown by his exhibits at the Edinburgh spring shows. In 
the fruit room we noticed narrow shelves, not wide 
apart, on which were layers of the finest fruit. The 
room was close and dark when we saw it, and were we 
to do our best at storing and keeping, the system to 
which we refer would have the preference. 
At the present time we have a new fruit-room. The 
shelves are placed round the sides of the structure, not 
far apart, so that a man’s arm may reach the further¬ 
most fruit. Having always great quantities (from a 
few special kinds of Apples) to store, we place them iu 
layers, raising them narrow towards the top. From an 
overladen orchard of six acres fruit-gathering would be 
unappreciable, were it not for the pleasure of supplying 
the villagers and some half-dozen adjacent schools four 
or five times during the winter with goodly consign¬ 
ments of useful fruit, ridding us of three-fourths of the 
whole stock, Pears are also distributed by the cwt. to 
appreciative “bairns.” We have seen many fruit- 
rooms in various parts of England and Scotland, and 
where the best kept Apples and Pears were to be seen 
was in structures thatched in the usual old-fashioned 
way, an even temperature evidently being the desirable 
agent which was credited with the sound and late- 
keeping quality of the fruit. Pears are generally laid 
out in single layers on dry shelves, and sheets of paper 
plaeed over the fruit, drying air and light being thus 
excluded. "We have also noticed the fine quality of 
Pears which were wrapt in tissue-paper and placed 
evenly along the shelves of fruit-rooms. We are also 
cognizant of the high prices which such fruit realise 
when sold from February onwards to A lay. We never 
cared to pack Pears very thickly. Even hard late- 
keeping ones appeared to do best when laid singly on 
the shelves. 
By some writers in years gone by, much stress was * 
laid on a free circulation of air through the fruit 
rooms, which now, by most practitioners would be 
denounced as damaging and ruinous to the fruit, and 
certainly we have seen lots of shrivelled and useless 
fruit from undue airing, which only caused evapo¬ 
ration to go on, carrying off the virtue of the fruit, and 
leaving it dry, leathery, and indigestible ; it is not 
generally recognised as a fact, that, fruit ripened on the 
trees well exposed to the sun and air, keep by far the 
best. Cordons are much valued for maturing Apples, 
and though not well done generally in this country, yet 
they are sometimes seen under excellent management 
exposing clusters of finely coloured fruit of unusually 
large size, and we know an advanced orchardist who 
asserts that they return good value for the extra labour 
expended on them ; we are referring to the rope-like 
trees one sometimes meets with along borders aud by 
sides of paths. The French are said to excel iu cordon 
management of every kind of fruit trees, aud from 
France (the enthusiast to whom we have just referred) 
has his cordons on vacant spaces of buildings, walls, 
&c. Cordons (single, double, and treble) of Apricots, 
Plums, Cherries, Apples, and Pears, will always give 
ample value and much pleasure in their management, 
when skill and attention is applied to them ; for special 
kinds which are to be late and well kept, cordon culti¬ 
vation cannot be surpassed. A/. T. 
