March 13, 1886. 
THE HARDENING WORLD 
487 
former is not so numerous where it is produced, it is 
decidedly finer, and it costs just the same to pick and 
convey a bushel of Apples to the market that will 
realise 2s. 6d. as one that will sell at double that sum. 
Small fruit scarcely pays for picking at any time—good 
fruit always does. 
In looking round fruit nurseries I should say that 
nine out of ten fruit trees, such as I have named, are 
dwarfs or pyramids, which leads me to conclude that they 
are more in demand on account of the ease and celerity 
with which they may be pruned, for I do not think it 
pays anyone to go to the expense of priming standards. 
Those who plant orchards with the view of grazing, 
have no alternative but to use standards, so that they 
may be out of the reach of all cattle : but such orchards 
are seldom satisfactory. All the best fruit at the Pear 
Congress appeared to me, from the statements attached 
to the various dishes, to have been gathered from trees 
of some kind of restrictive growth. The Apples and 
Pears exhibited at the Liverpool Chrysanthemum 
Show are, I believe, without exception from pruned 
trees, and those exhibited by the local growers are 
very little inferior to one or two collections usually 
sent from Kent. In Mrs. Heywood’s garden, at Norris 
Green, near the same town, I saw one autumn, in a 
small compass on pruned trees, enough good fruit to 
supply any ordinary establishment. A writer in a con¬ 
temporary stated recently, that at two ducal establish¬ 
ments where he was once the pruned trees produced such 
crops, that after supplying the household barrow-loads 
were taken weekly out of the fruit-room and thrown 
away. 
An enthusiast in gardening matters took a piece of 
garden ground a few years ago, which contained three 
or four Apple and Pear trees covering one-half of the 
garden ; but what with the smallness of the fruit and 
the wind blowing the best of them down, he found 
they were of little use to him, inasmuch that they were 
unsaleable at a price to pay him for his trouble in 
gathering them. He therefore resolved to grub them 
up and plant young trees on the piece of ground that 
had hitherto been devoted to vegetables, and eighteen 
Apple and twelve Pear trees were selected and planted 
early in the autumn. They. bore fruit the following 
year, and he has at different times taken prizes in the 
cottagers’ and amateurs’ classes at show's, as well as 
providing himself with a supply of fruit for as many 
months as the large trees did weeks, obviously from 
the greater number of varieties having been planted. 
Since this new departure in fruit culture, thousands of 
owners of small gardens can have half a dozen to a 
dozen varieties instead of one or two, and the same rule 
applies to those gardens hi charge of professionals. 
What gardeners want is not bushels of indifferent fruit, 
but a few superior samples to send to table. 
In addition to some of the best fruit being blown 
down in stormy w'eather from unpruned trees, much of 
that which remains will be found damaged in conse¬ 
quence of the fruit-laden oscillating boughs violently- 
dashing against each other ; and everyone who has 
been actually engaged in gathering and storing fruit 
of Apples and Pears from such trees must have observed 
depressions on their surface, which, to some extent 
will account for much of the fruit decaying soon after 
entering the fruit-store. It is obvious that the wind 
cannot have this effect on fruit borne on sturdy branches. 
This alone should be a sufficient reason for judicious 
pruning, and one is amazed that any practical man 
should howl at the sight of a pruned tree.— W. P. It. 
ON FORCING STRAWBERRIES. 
By way of supplementing “ W. P. R.’s” practical 
remarks on setting Strawberries, at p. 410, a few words 
upon the treatment which they should receive from 
the time the fruits are set until they are ripe will be 
opportune, and, perhaps, may be of some little assist¬ 
ance to not a few readers of The Gardening World, 
by showing them how satisfactory results may be 
secured, even in structures not the most suitable for 
the production of forced Strawberries. After the fruit 
is set the number should be reduced where more than 
the necessary number to form a crop has set, to ten or 
fifteen on each plant of the Vicomtesse Hericart de 
Thury or Keen’s Seedling type, and from six to ten 
on each plant of larger growing varieties, according to 
the strength of the individual plants, selecting the 
best and most even-sized berries for the crop, and 
bearing in mind that ten fruits weighing as much as 
three-times that number would do well, is a much 
more creditable production for the cultivator, and far 
more acceptable at his employer’s table than the latter 
would be. 
When the fruits are being thinned out, it will be as 
well to support the fruit spike of large-growing varieties 
by putting a small forky twig under the cluster of 
fruit, otherwise the increasing weight of the latter will 
cause the stem through which the berries receive 
nourishment to collapse, and cause a consequent dimi¬ 
nution in the size of the fruit. An old birch broom 
will afford ample supports for a goodly number of plants. 
From the time the plants have set their fruit until the 
latter begin to colour copious supplies of tepid liquid 
manure should be given at the roots, using it in a weak 
rather than an over strong state, providing that the 
drainage in the pots is good as it should be ; there need 
be no apprehension of over-watering the plants at this 
date and stage of growth—swelling their fruit and 
developing young leaves. Indeed such plants should 
have a good watering at the roots every morning or 
afternoon, and later on with an increase of light and 
sunshine twice a day until the crop has been taken. 
The water should not be applied indiscriminately over 
the leaves, flowers, or fruits of the plant, but should 
be poured in at the side of the pots ; in some cases it 
may be necessary to hold the leaves up with one hand 
to do so. 
From the time the plants have set their fruit until 
the latter approaches maturity-, they should be syringed 
overhead with tepid water mornings and afternoons, 
more or less heavily according to the condition of the 
weather and the degree of heat at which the houses in 
which the plants are located are kept, the object of the 
syringing being as much to promote a growing atmo¬ 
sphere as to keep the plants free from fly and the 
attacks of red spider, the latter the gardener’s greatest 
enemy during the forcing season. The nearer the 
plants are kept to the glass without coming in contact 
with it the more sturdy will they grow, and conse¬ 
quently better results will be secured. Any house in 
which the night temperature ranges from 50° to 05° or 
70°, 5° higher by day and fire-heat, and 10° more by¬ 
sun-heat, will (providing the necessary amount of 
atmospheric moisture can be distributed without inter¬ 
fering with the well-being of the permanent occupants 
of the house) be congenial to the requirements of the 
Strawberry plants in their various stages of growth. 
Of course, the plants swelling their fruits should be 
located in the warmest houses, and consequently they- 
should be syringed more heavily and frequently over¬ 
head in order to keep them clean than would be neces¬ 
sary to do to plants in less warm houses. Yineries and 
Peach-houses just being started are capital places to 
bring on the Strawberry plants in, Melon and Cucumber- 
houses and Pine-stoves, where space admits of a shelf 
being fixed on brackets suspended from the rafters over 
the pathway-, being good places for them to swell their 
fruits in, and in order to give flavour and colour to the 
fruit a somewhat dry, airy, and warm atmosphere should 
be aimed at during their ripening period ; and to secure 
these conditions will necessitate the plants which have 
just set their fruits, and those whose fruits are ap¬ 
proaching maturity, exchanging places. Of course, in 
houses specially constructed for the forcing of Straw¬ 
berries, this shifting of plants from one house to another 
will not be necessary, as the atmospheric temperature 
in each house can be regulated progressively and in 
accordance with the immediate requirements of the 
plants. 
I make it a rule to place the baskets containing the 
fruits for dessert on a shelf near the glass in one 
of the Pine houses for half-an-liour, or thereabouts, 
prior to sending them to the Castle at 5 p.m. This 
improves both the colour and the flavour of the fruit by- 
extracting therefrom any extra watery matter which 
they may happen to contain when being gathered. 
Especially reconimendable is this practice in the case of 
Strawberries which have been ripened in close moist 
houses, a course which circumstances not unfrequently 
renders necessary. In conclusion I may remark that 
after these remarks appear in print, there will be no 
difficulty experienced in securing a good “set of fruit 
on strong healthy plants, neither will a gentle syringing 
overhead to keep the plants free from fly do them any- 
liarm while in flower. 
Forced plants intended for making new plantations 
with, should be put into a cold pit for a few days to 
harden off after the fruit has been taken from them. 
After which they should be divested of any bad leaves, 
the drainage be gone over, and then be planted out in 
well prepared ground in rows 2 ft. apart, and at about 
20 ins. in the rows, while moist at the roots ; making 
the soil firm about them, and afterwards lay on a surface¬ 
dressing of short dung to the thickness of 2 ins. between 
the rows and plants. -H. IV. Ward, Longford Castle. 
Campanula Yidalii. 
