618 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
May 27, 1899. 
THE CABBAGE FLY (ANTHOMYIA 
BRASSICAE.) 
Year after year, just as regularly as we put out 
Cabbage plants, the above fly makes itself known. 
It is hard enough work to get the plants started 
without being pestered with any flies, for our soil is 
almost pure sand, topsoil and subsoil; yet, just as 
sure as we put out the crop they become infested. 
They, however, have a wonderful vitality, and what 
with constant soot and lime waterings we manage as 
a rule to check the progress of the grubs and to aid 
the plants a little bit. By retaining around the ball 
of the plants, even though the main or lower part of 
the root succumbs, smaller roots are sent out from 
the stem at the ground evel. 
After these get hold we press the plants down by 
a jerk with the heel and earth them high up. We 
have kept out all vegetable mould for the kitchen 
garden for some, because we found that such appli¬ 
cations ust meant the cultivating in the most 
vigorous fashion the very pest we were fighting 
against. We burn the Cabbage stocks, and have 
dressed the ground both before and after planting— 
a month or two, of course, before or after—with 
gas lime, using 2 tons per acre, which was as much 
as we dared use on such hot, dry soil. This had a 
mighty effect in suppressing the larvae. There are 
three generations annually, therefore persistent 
efforts are needed. The female fly lays her eggs 
down on the stem of the plant, and very soon these 
hatch out, and the "grub,” as we gardeners call it, 
bores into the root or stem, which straightway 
decomposes. At this period things go very hard 
with the plants. Very many utterly fail, while 
Others pull through. We can only urge the use of 
of soot water made in a thick tarry liquid and kept 
at the plants for so long as there is a danger. They 
soon become too tough, and here we have a lesson 
given, to sow thinly in the seed beds or drills, and to 
do everything to produce a healthy, vigorous, 
toughened plant for putling out. Of course, there 
are other dipterous flies, even of the same genus as 
A. Brassicae, only, we think, this one is a real bad 
chap. Keep the ground free from weeds, especially 
those belonging to the same order as the Cabbage 
tribe .—Havrison D. 
FRUIT GROWING IN KENT. 
(Continued from p. 605.) 
In the Present. 
Having glanced at the conditions that prevailed in 
the past, we arrive at the year 1869, when that period 
of agricultural depression set in, which has been a 
great factor in turning the minds of farmers and 
landowners to sources of revenue other than 
ordinarythree or four course husbandry.The gardening 
Press had for some time been dinning into the ears of 
the public that vast sums of money were leaving the 
country for the purchase of such hsrdy fruits as 
could be grown in Britain. The daily Press caught 
the same spirit, whilst the agricultural papers took 
up the idea earnestly, but slowly. By degrees this 
idea became a fact, and those men who went in boldly 
for fruit culture at that time have made fortunes ; 
and many labouring men, who had plenty of hard 
work in them, began in a small way and extended 
on all sides as they accumulated capital. There 
was another factor which had to be reckoned with. 
The removal of the excise duties from hops and 
malt had so depressed prices that orchards were 
found to pay better on an average of years than 
hops or barley; and fruit trees were introduced in 
the hop gardens in order that when they reached a 
paying age the hops might be grubbed and the land 
laid to grass, as before the introduction of foreign 
mutton and beef live stock was as yet a safe invest¬ 
ment for farmers. For, in a grass orchard, as an 
old hand once remarked to me, " We get three 
crops : mutton, wool, and fruit.” The growth of 
soft fruit for the making of jam and preserves, 
bottling, &c., which had hitherto been a local 
business, now became a vast industry, and thousands 
of acres of poor woodland and thin arable lands 
were adapted to the culture of Strawberries and 
bush fruits in the Swanley and Cray districts of 
Kent. No small amount of their success in those 
parts is doubtless owing to the cheap manure 
which they procure from London, where the author¬ 
ities very rightly decline to have it stored, and it 
is this fertilising agent more than the soil itself 
which has justly made the Swanley fruit a name all 
over the kingdom. 
Fruit-culture then began to be taken up as a 
serious business, and every advantage of improved 
systems of culture was embraced. New kinds of 
fruits in each family were tested and their suitability 
for market, when once known, caused them to be 
largely planted. The matter of pruning, which we 
take to be the crux of the Kent system, was carefully 
developed, and it was found that very much finer 
examples could be produced by severe pruning, while 
such fruit made the highest prices. Timely pruning, 
gathering of the crop at several pickings, with an 
extra top dressing of manure in summer, gave results 
never dreamed of before. Growers were not slow 
in following such evident sources of profit, while new 
and distant markets became available, as the 
Northern and Western Railway agents eagerly 
competed for this traffic; and so it came to pass 
that Strawberries (which are one of the most perish¬ 
able fruits) could be gathered at Swanley, at the 
rate of eighty-five tons in one day, and put on rail 
to reach Glasgow and Edinburgh the same day in 
good order. 
My remarks in this division have hitherto referred 
more to soft fruits (Currants, Raspberries, Cherries, 
and Strawberries), but attention was at the same 
time given to Plums and Apples and the hardier 
kinds of Pear, which soon proved themselves to pay 
handsomely for cultural care, while the introduction 
of the Paradise, stock for grafting Apples upon, 
enabled growers to obtain crops from trees three or 
four years old in bush form. The fruit from such 
trees, by its proximity to the ground, and by the aid 
of refracted heat, possessed such beauty, size, and 
appearance, that even in years when a glut of fruit 
obtained, the Apples from the Paradise trees made 
a good paying price. In fact, it pays a farmer to 
plant them on a 14 years’ lease. Instead of the old 
tall orchard standard trees, Plums planted as two 
year old trees, headed back low for half standards, 
became the rage, and gave a crop the fourth or fifth 
year, and by a combination of the plantation system 
with top fruit, very large returns were secured from 
a small acreage. A word as to the Paradise stock. 
It is a surface rooting Apple found in the central 
Asian mountains and was named Malus Pavadisica 
from its being discovered near the region of the 
supposed Garden of Eden. This variety, though a 
weakling by itself, gives great vigour to the Apple 
scions and buds placed upon it, and causes the trees 
to produce fruit (as before stated) much earlier than 
trees raised on the Crab Apple. Heavy crops are 
frequently obtained on two year trees and have to be 
thinned out. All the sorts of Paradise Apples have 
this effect, except the narrow-leaved French variety, 
which has such a restrictive action on the scion that 
it fails to make a paying tree, and unfortunately this 
fact has in the past caused the Apple trees on this 
stock to be condemned. Our best nurserymen are 
now well aware of this, and only use for stocks the 
broad-leaved varieties. In the Royal Horticultural 
Society trials at Chiswick, it was found that the 
Paradise Apple stocks that were not grafted gradu¬ 
ally dwindled away, while those which had " taken,” 
or been worked, formed handsome and fertile trees. 
It is by the use of these Paradise stocks that 
nurserymen are able to supply examples in many 
cases capable of bearing fruit the first season 
after transplanting, as this Paradise stock produces 
such abundant surface roots that the trees do not 
suffer on removal. 
There is yet another factor that has assisted the 
culture of fruit in the past thirty years, viz., the 
introduction of steam for the purpose of clearing and 
deeply cultivating the soil, and in many cases quite 
equalling trenching. The good work done by the 
Royal Horticultural Society through its publications, 
conferences, and exhibitions, has conferred a great 
benefit on the public by the introduction of novelties 
and the awarding of medals and certificates to the 
most deserving kinds. The gardening Press has 
done loyal service in giving information, and the 
lectures and practical demonstrations by the County 
Council lecturers have brought home to the people 
the advantage of culture, and the rational use of 
preventive mixtures for blights, insects, &c. 
While not agreeing with the American system of 
spraying with poisonous compounds (as Paris green, 
and London purple) for orchards and plantations, 
having regard to their dangerous character, jet the 
use of winter dressing of lime, soot, and soft soap, 
and sprays for insects when they appear in spring 
or summer, is very desirable. Many of our bes 
growers spray as often as four times a year, both as 
a preventative and a cure, but a free use of manure, 
clean cultivation, and care to search regularly for 
insect blights in order to cure such before they spread, 
will render drastic measures unnecessary. 
It would be well in this place to give the modus 
operandi in forming orchards and plantations as now 
practised by the best Kent growers. If an orchard 
be desired on what is now grassland, say Cherries, 
they are planted at 36 ft. apart in rows; but in 
order to reap an earlier return, Plums are placed 
between the Cherries at 18 ft. apart, as these 
commence to bear the fourth or fifth year, whereas 
Cherries are some eight or ten years before they pay 
to pick. In planting, the turf is removed or dug in, 
and holes about 3 ft. over and ij ft. deep, are made 
to receive the trees, which, after planting, are staked, 
and if cattle are allowed into the orchard they are 
protected (cradled) with Chestnut pales, made 
square or triangular to keep the heads of the trees 
from the reach of the cattle. The Plums are pruned 
back the first year, but the Cherries are better not 
cut back until they have made a year’s growth. 
Care is taken to keep grass from rooting in the 3 ft. 
circle, as its presence and penetrating power would 
otherwise absorb all the moisture necessary for the 
young tree to establish itself. The orchard trees are 
snmmer and winter pruned, and shaped, or balanced 
for five or six years, until they are fitted to be grown 
on, with an occasional thinning of the main boughs, 
and the ties which attach the trees to the stakes are 
renewed also. In forming a plantation, a field or 
stretch of ground which has been previously prepared 
by a crop of Potatos, Peas, or greens, is deeply 
stirred, and the standard or half-standard trees are 
placed in lines, say 15 ft. apart, for Plums, small¬ 
growing Apples and Pears, and 18 to 24 ft. for the 
larger kinds. These being planted, give the pattern 
for the bush fruit, which will then be introduced in 
long lines at 6 ft. apart, so that horse hoes can be 
used to keep the land clean, all the trees of a kind 
being planted in a block so that the fruit can be 
gathered at one time. I strongly recommend that 
all new orchards be raised in arable land, when for 
some years a handsome profit can be made from 
intermediate vegetable crops, Wallflowers, &c., the 
cultivation of which is of great benefit to orchard 
trees. In the culture of Strawberries it is usual to 
plant after some crop which has been highly 
manured. The plants are set in spring, or if favour¬ 
able, in autumn. An acre requires some 12,000 for 
a plant at 2 ft. apart, 30 in. from row to row. An 
improved plan now obtains of planting on the 
square, as horse cultivation can then be used both 
ways, and thus hand labour is saved. 
The Kent Cob Nut is very extensively grown in 
Kent, where the largest-sized cuts are produced ; 
being a hardy subject, not particular as to soil, many 
steep banks and stony patches of land that will not 
grow better fruits are planted with trees at 12 to 15 
ft. apart, and for some years until the Cobs require 
all the ground, vegetable crops or bush fruits are 
grown between them, which being highly manured 
help the Nuts to form trees. They begin to crop the 
third year; many old plantations are found with 
trees ico years old, some 24 ft. through, and not 
more than 6 ft. high, as they are sevely pruned to 
keep the trees in the form of an inverted umbrella 
with about 9 to 12 main branches, all coarse wood 
being pruned away, as it is from the young spray 
that the nuts are produced. The female blossom 
appears in February and the male catkins or pollini- 
ferous flowers are best left on (or at least a portion 
of them) until the blossom is set, say March, before 
the winter pruning is carried out. They are also 
pruned in August, taking out the strong "wands” 
which are used for packing, and the top surplus 
growth is then broken off. A good plantation will 
yield | ton to the acre, but we have had two or three 
good years (1896-7-8) when crops have reached t0 2j 
tons. Prices vary from 25s. to 60s. per 100 lbs. 
Standard Apples and Plums are often planted over 
them, and this gives a larger return per acre, but 
Cobs are best alone, though they succeed fairly well 
under trees. Cob Nuts will also flourish in good 
ground (soil), but that is usually reserved for choice 
fruits and too grors growth is not favourable to their 
cropping. 
Birds. — I shall naturally be expected to give some 
opinion on this point. As far as birds are concerned, 
