216 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
December 5, 1891. 
APPLES FOR AMATEURS^ 
It is not my intention here in these brief remarks 
to enter into the system of growing and disposing of 
our most useful of all hardy fruit from a commercial 
point of view, but rather to confine myself to those 
about to plant in their own small private gardens 
individually. I will endeavour to point out to in¬ 
tending planters the best method of maintaining a 
constant supply from their own resources, leaving 
the large trade growers and salesmen to cater for 
the masses, who have no means of growing their 
own fruit. 
In a brief paper of this description it is impossible 
to enter minutely into the whole business .of Apple 
production, but I will endeavour to place my ideas 
before you in a simple, practical manner. To make 
them as plain as possible I will divide my paper 
into four sections as follows:—ist, Selection of 
Trees; 2nd, Preparation of Ground, Planting, and 
Pruning • 3rd, fruit Room and Storing , Insect 
Pests, briefly touching upon each of them in the 
order named. 
Selection of Trees. 
This may at first appear somewhat early in my 
remarks to refer to this most important point. Upon 
it depends the foundation of success or failure of the 
plants. By way of making a commencement it will 
be well for the intending planter to have a limited 
number of trees of approved sorts, and treat them 
well, rather than overstock himself at the commence¬ 
ment. Success with a few will probably result in 
the careful treatment of a much larger numbei in 
future years; but failure through having a larger 
number than can be skilfully managed will probably 
lessen the interest originally attached to them. 
Glowing ideas at first formed will not be realised 
owing to overwork, the idea of Apple culture for the 
use and pleasure of one’s own family will probably 
be abandoned never to be repeated. With regard to 
the number of trees to be planted, much depends 
upon the means and requirements of the intending 
planter. Apples may be grown with success in 
several forms, but the four ways in which I find 
they answer best are as follows : bushes, espaliers, 
cordons, and standards. For bushes I find the most 
suitable varieties with me are—for dessert—Early 
Margaret, hardy and good cropper ; Red Astrachan, 
extremely handsome and a good cropper ; Duchess 
of Oldenburg, hardy, exceptional cropper, handsome, 
moderately good flavour ; King of Pippins, hardy, 
good grower, and a reliable cropper ; Cox s Orange 
Pippin, undoubtedly the best of the dessert varieties 
for flavour; Sturmer Pippin, a most excellent late 
Apple. Worcester Pearmain, a large conical Apple 
very popular at the present time, bears on the points 
of the shoots, which must be remembered in pruning. 
For Cooking. —Keswick Codlin, =n old and popular 
Apple ; Stirling Castle, extremely prolific, should be 
bought on the Crab ; Ecldinville, large and a good 
bearer ; Potts’ Seedling, a very heavy Apple, tree 
exceptionally dwarf and a good bearer ; New Haw- 
thornden, an excellent Apple and good grower; 
Wellington, an exceptionally useful Apple, good 
cropper, cooks well, and is in use a very long time; 
and Lane’s Prince Albert. 
For Espaliers I find the following with me are 
suitable:— 
Dessert. —Red Astrachan ; King of Pippins ; Scar¬ 
let Nonpareil, tree hardy and good bearer ; Cox's 
Orange Pippin ; Sturmer Pippin ; Court Pendu Plat, 
a very late Apple. 
For Cooking. —Lord Suffield, where the soil is warm ; 
Cellini, sure cropper ; The Queen, a handsome new 
Apple; New Hawthornden ; Warner’s King, a large 
heavy Apple ; and Wellington. 
For Cordons I consider the following a good 
selection ; they do well with me :— 
Dessert. —Red Astrachan ; Kerry Pippin, a useful 
early Apple ; King of Pippins ; Cox’s Orange Pippin ; 
Lady Sudeley, new and excellent; Sturmer Pippin. 
Cooking. —Stirling Castle ; Warner's King ; The 
Queen ; Cox’s Pomona, a handsome Apple ; Potts’ 
Seedling; Wellington. 
As Standards I find the undermentioned do 
well:— 
For Dessert. —Yellow Ingestrie, an attractive Apple ; 
Worcester Pearmain ; Fearn’s Pippin, a good Apple, 
but the trees do not bear quickly ; Duchess of 
A paper by Mr. W. Goring, IVcjI'I Hall Gardens, Brent¬ 
wood, read at a recent meeting of the British Fruit Growers* 
Associationi 
Oldenburg ; Cox’s Orange Pippin; King of the 
Pippins. 
For Cooking .—Keswick Codlin ; Potts’ Seedling ; 
Warner's King; Lord Derby, an excellent Apple; 
Ecklinville; Wellington, and Lane’s Prince Albert. 
Several others might be added, but I have found the 
foregoing thoroughly reliable. 
It is very interesting to have a trial ground in 
some convenient place. A large selection of ap¬ 
proved sorts may be grown there, and will prove 
very interesting and instructive. Presuming the in¬ 
tending planter to have decided on the number of 
trees of each form he wishes to plant, his best plan 
will be to pay a visit to some well-known reliable 
nurseryman in the late summer months, and person¬ 
ally select his trees, taking due care to have them 
marked ready for delivery when the lifting season 
arrives. This plan of personally selecting the trees 
I regard of the utmost importance, for the following 
reasons :—You have the choice of the very best 
trees for sale; by selecting them early you practi¬ 
cally insure early autumn delivery ; and further, you 
have a good opportunity of comparing the merits of 
the different varieties, and forming an opinion on the 
ground of any new sorts that may have been re¬ 
cently introduced to commerce, 
Preparation of the Ground, Planting and 
Pruning. 
In my opinion the most useful of all trees for the 
moderate-sized garden is the bush, which should, 
with few exceptions, be planted on the broad-leaved 
Paradise. They may be conveniently planted by the 
sides of walks in rows about 6 ft. apart, and the same 
distance from the path. The ground should be 
trenched ioft. or 12 ft. from the walk, and 18 in. deep 
or thereabouts, according to its nature, and drained 
if necessary. Holes should be dug at the required 
distance from each other, and from 12 in. to 18 in. 
deep, according to the nature of the soil. If the 
soil is wet they may be somewhat shallow, and if dry 
they may be somewhat deeper, but in no case must 
the tree be planted deeper than it was originally. 
The holes must be slightly higher in the centre and 
well covered with slates or brick rubbish to prevent 
the roots going downwards. At planting time a 
good stake should be in readiness to drive in the 
centre of the hole to secure the tree, also some good 
turfy loam, to induce the formation of fibrous roots. 
The roots should be carefully pruned with a sharp 
knife, making the cut on the under side to induce 
the new fibrous roots to start from the top of the 
old root, and ultimately become what are termed 
surface roots. Without these surface roots it will 
be impossible to succeed, as they are the first to take 
any nourishment that may be administered to the 
tree, also the warmth in the summer. 
The trees should in most cases be shortened back 
to a wood bud, pointing outwards, before the end of 
the current year in which they were planted. In my 
opinion, from my own experience, I believe one of 
the chief causes of canker in newly planted trees is 
the result of shortening back late in the spring. 
Severe and untimely pruning, I believe, induces can¬ 
ker if the operation is performed in the spring, when 
the buds are swelling and the sap is at work. It 
must either overflow by the wounded surface and 
cause weakness, or it must stagnate, and when it does 
so, being partly in contact with the air, it becomes 
vitiated and the bark cankers and shells off, leaving 
a long dead stump, which requires to be cut off, and 
even then the wound.is difficult to heal over, setting 
aside the loss of wood, of time, and perhaps the loss 
of the whole tree. 
Espaliers. 
This is a useful and economical type of tree for 
small gardens. They may be conveniently planted 
by the side of walks, about 4 ft. from the walk, the 
ground having been previously trenched as for 
bushes, a post placed at each end of the line to be 
planted, and others at intervals of about 18 ft. along 
the lines, and a hole as described for bushes dug 
midway between each of the posts. Strong wires 
should be strained along the posts at the same dis¬ 
tance as the branches are apart on the espalier trees 
generally. Do not shorten these horizontal branches, 
but tie them in the full length for the time 
being; they will help to keep the tree in action, and 
may be shortened if necessary when the tree is at 
rest 
Cordons 
Require a more restricted method. A trench should 
be dug out about 18 in. deep, and 3 ft. wide, stout 
posts placed along the line as for espaliers, about 6 
ft. high; strain the wire tightly along the top, an¬ 
other about half way down, and one along the line 
of the posts near the ground. Tie long bamboos to 
the wires at an angle of 45 0 to 50°, and 18 in. apart. 
Plant one tree to each bamboo, and secure them as 
the work proceeds. These bamboos will be found to 
protect the trees from the wires, and will be found 
very handy for securing the leaders of the trees to, 
more especially if maidens are bought. It should be 
mentioned that the leaders of the trees should not be 
stopped if they can be induced to form spurs as they 
proceed in growth. 
Standards. 
These are too often planted in a careless and slovenly 
manner, but if success is to follow the efforts of the 
planter the work must be well and carefully done. 
The ground should be broken up to a depth of 24 in., 
good large holes dug for the trees, the injured roots 
carefully pruned with a sharp knife, and the whole of 
them carefully distributed in the hole, a stout stake 
having previously been placed there in the centre, the 
tree securely tied to it before it is left, not, as is too 
often the case, left undone for the time being, and 
perhaps never done at all. As a result the trees bow 
to the ground with the wet and wind, and then our 
amateur cultivators wonder why their trees do not 
bear fruit. The trees should be shortened back when 
perfectly dormant, but do not defer the operation 
till late in the spring, or canker will assuredly follow. 
No time should be lost in giving all the newly 
planted trees a good mulching of decayed manure to 
prevent undue evaporation and protect the roots 
from frost. 
m + m 
ORCHID ROTES AND GLEANINGS. 
A Leek Amateur's Orchids. 
Seldom does it fall to my lot to meet with such 
enthusiasm as I usually find amongst the Leek 
(Staffordshire) Orchid growers. Their minds are 
continually open for the reception of anything ap¬ 
pertaining to Orchid lore ; in short they are inte¬ 
rested in every collection of Orchids and in every 
grower in the United Kingdom. Foremost amongst 
them is Mr. Thomas Hall, whose collection has 
been formed during the past eighteen months. He 
has in all three houses. The intermediate house 
measures 22 ft. by 12 ft., cool house, 20 ft. by 12 ft., 
and the show or flowering house, 10 ft. by 12 ft. At 
the time of my visit there was quite a formidable 
array of plants in bloom, viz., several Ca- 
lanthes of sorts, including C. veratrifolia, Laelia 
elegans, L. Dayana, L. anceps, L. anceps alba, L. 
albida, L. grandis, Cattleya Harrisonim, C. Bow- 
ringiana, C. Eldorado, C. Warocqueana, Oncidium 
crispum, O. Forbesi, O. incurvum, O. tigrinum, 
Odontoglossum grande, O. Alexandra, O. bictonense, 
O. maculatum, O. cordatum, O. Cervantesi, Vanda 
Amesiana, V. Kimballiana, V. suavis, Epidendrum 
vitellinum majus, Coelogyne barbata, Cymbi- 
dium Lowii, etc., many representatives of each, all 
thoroughly clean and well grown. Mr. Hall is 
proud of them and well he may be.— J. McNab. 
Odontoglossum grande. 
A well-flowered plant of Odontoglossum grande 
was exhibited the other week by Mr. David Lord, 
Stackstead, and created no small surprise among 
the visitors at the Bacup and District Chrysanthe¬ 
mum Show. The plant, not a large one, bore three 
spikes, one with seven, one with four, and one with 
three flowers. Mr. Lord is well-known to grow this 
Odontoglossum remarkably well. 
Laelia anceps. 
These are now coming on rapidly, L. a. Barkeri is 
already in flower, L. a. Hilli has nine strong spikes; 
it is one of the prettiest yet of the pale section. One 
of the white forms, too, is in a forward state, flower¬ 
ing from a single lead for the third season in succes¬ 
sion where larger pieces with stronger growths 
positively refused a single flower. These latter were 
removed early in the season to a place by themselves 
where they received the least shade during very hot 
sunshine only; the result has been three flower 
spikes—the largest plant has two and one I see has 
four flower-buds. They give good promise of proving 
true, and it will be interesting to watch them open, 
after being so long in showing us what they are like. 
— Jas. Brown, Arddarroch. 
Laelia autumnalis alba. 
The white form of L. autumnalis has proved 
