506 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
April 10, 1897. 
understood than other fruits, and it is only by fre¬ 
quently coming into contact with the varieties, and 
carefully noting their merits that one can put a 
proper estimate on their condition and quality. 
Some censors are as destitute of this knowledge as 
the writer is of the genuine flavour of wines, spirits, 
or ales — luxuries which he never imbibed. During 
many years judging I have had to listen to strange 
remarks adduced at exhibition tables, and at other 
gatherings, which go far to illustrate the false posi¬ 
tion one is in who has consulted narrow views only 
_indefinite and environed. Some go in for colour 
only, almost ignoring large berries, form and size of 
bunch. Give colour a prominent place certainly, 
but that should not decide if other desirable points 
are absent. Grapes, unlike Peaches, Pears, Melons, 
and most other fruits, do not ripen if they are cut 
when unripe ; and colouring is often at its best long 
before Grapes are fit to eat. They are often 
tempting in this condition to unwary purchasers in 
market, who find out their mistake when the fruit is 
put to the masticating test. For invalids such 
Grapes are positively dangerous. 
It is next to impossible to find at September shows 
such sorts as Lady Downes, Gros Colmar, and 
Alicante, in eatable condition ; and often Muscat 
Hamburgh, Madresfield Court, and Mrs. Pince, at 
the same time (by careful inspection) are found to be 
acid, green near the footstalk, and leathery in sub¬ 
stance. But these three sorts, with Black 
Hamburgh, in first-rate condition, will hold their 
own against all the varieties which are only fit for 
use in December and onwards. During December, 
January, February, and onwards, Gros Colmar and 
Lady Downes are first-rate in flavour. Before that 
period many connoisseurs will not eat them. We 
have seen fine Lady Downes ripened at the warm end 
of a Muscat house during August, and little inferior 
to the Muscats themselves. The Muscat of Alexan¬ 
dria and Cannon Hall Muscat will always hold the 
leading positions in the Grape classes ; and coming 
next to these in white Grapes, Duke of Buccleuch 
and Golden Champion, with berries averaging an 
inch and a half deep, of a golden colour, free from 
spot or blemish, and the bunches of fine form, will 
eclipse all other white Grapes. White Frontignan, 
Grizzly Frontignan and Duchess of Buccleuch hold 
a different position, and can only have fair play 
when exhibited in their own classes. Their flavour 
is exquisite, while the berries are too small to be 
admired. 
I would divide Grapes into three classes ; but if 
second or third rate varieties were of high-class 
culture I would give them a better position than 
first-rate sorts exhibited in poor condition, which 
they too often are at northern and southern exhibi¬ 
tions alike. Shrivelled, limp, rubbed, or unripened 
Grapes should never be brought to any exhibition ; 
and judges do well to pass over such, no matter to 
what class they belong. Muscat of Alexandria, with 
berries uneven, many of them stoneless, and show¬ 
ing the footstalks, sometimes receive awards, because 
the colour is good ; but judges should ignore such, 
when first-rate culture is beiDg the object of com¬ 
petition. While I would advise judges to adjudicate 
on definite lines, it is necessary that they should not 
be influenced by those who are ever found carping. 
In such cases justice cannot be associated with 
mercy ; and some exhibitors cannot “ See themselves 
as others see them,” which “ would from many a 
blunder free them.”— M. Temple, Carron, N.B . 
-- 
ENGLISH ORCHARDS. 
(Continued from page 490). 
Devon. 
Devonshire has the largest acreage under orchards 
of the English counties, and consequently the report 
on the present aspect of fruit culture in this shire, 
has special interest, and no excuse will be necessary 
for the two quotations I shall make. We are told 
with regard to the capabilities of the county : “ By 
way of showing what it is possible to do in Devon, I 
give a few figures supplied by Mr. Snow who has an 
orchard only one acre in extent, but which has been 
thoroughly well-managed from the time it was first 
planted. In 1893 Mr Snow grew enough fruit to 
make thirty-one hogsheads of cider, which he sold at 
the rate of 35s. per hogshead. In addition he 
gathered and sold 500 score pounds of Apples which 
fetched, on an average, is per score. Good crops 
were again had in 1894, and 13^ hogsheads of cider 
were made, this fetching 26s. per hogshead, while no 
less than 350 score of Apples were marketed, this 
time at 13d. per score. If the old notions to the 
effect that some varieties of Apples only bear fruit 
once in every two or three years were true, then Mr. 
Snow ought to have had very little fruit in 1894, and 
not a very heavy crop in 1895. As it happens the 
trees are not in a crowded state, nor individually in 
want of thinning out, nor of being cleared of moss, 
nor in need of assistance at the roots, and, as a 
consequence, were fully equal to bearing an even 
heavier crop. Twenty-nine hogsheads of cider were 
made, and six hundred and fifty score pounds of 
Apples marketed.” The way in which these 
capabilities have been taken advantage of may be 
gathered from this excerpt: "Devon is certainly 
famous for its orchards, and noted for the excellence 
of much of the cider that is made in the county ; but 
the orchards will not, as a rule, bear critical 
examination, nor is cider sufficiently in demand to 
justify such a waste of space in growing Apples for 
its manufacture. As a matter of fact, Devonshire, 
compared with other counties, has mads little or no 
progress of late years, and there are hundreds of 
orchards in that county that are little short of 
disgrace to those who own or rent them. Here and 
there are signs of improvement taking place, and it is 
hoped the capable instructors engaged by the 
technical education committees will not expend their 
energies in vain. The majority of the orchards are 
rented by farmers, who too often are the worst of 
gardeners and the poorest of fruit growers, and they 
cannot be induced to improve on their methods. All 
the while the trees remain standing that is sufficient 
for them, and not a few that have blown over—for 
they get some heavy gales in Devon—are left where 
they are as long as life remains in them, or the cattle 
that roam in the orchards leave them fairly intact.” 
Somerset. 
Much the same state of things exists in the orchards 
of Somerset, which ranks next to Hereford in the 
area under fruit trees, and with reference to these it 
is stated, " Somerset, all things considered, is one of 
the most fertile counties I have yet passed through, 
and in the matter of climate there is also little room 
for complaint. Yet, curiously enough, several kinds 
of hardy fruit have to be imported—Plums and 
Damsons chiefly from Worcestersh re, and Cherries 
from Kent.” Also " great areas are devoted to cider 
Apples, which produce heavy crops ; but they are of 
little value, and not until there is an immense 
improvement in the manufacture and increase in the 
consumption of the beverage can there be any profit 
from cider.” Worcestershire has the next largest 
acreage of fruit, and with regard to the farm orchards 
we are told—and this is the last extract from the 
reports that I shall trouble you with—" In no case 
did I find the average tenant farmer abreast of the 
times in the matter of orchard management. These 
men's ideas are immovable, as their actions are 
generally confined to the practice of sticking in a 
tree in the position occupied by one that has fallen 
fnto decay. Pruning appears to be quite neglected 
by them, and the trees in the majority of cases are in 
such an unsatisfactory condition that no possible 
system now pursued will so restore the fertility of 
the orchards as to ensure fruit of such quality as can 
compete in open market with foreign productions.” 
I should like to speak in some detail of the condition 
of the orchards of Beds, Berks, Bucks, Essex, 
Cambridgeshire, Liecestershire, Notts, Norfolk, and 
other counties, but time presses, and I have already 
said sufficient to show that the English orchards are, 
in the majority of cases, in a condition that renders 
it impossible for the trees to produce fruit worth 
sending to market or worthy of the purchaser’s 
attention, should the owner be unwise enough to 
consign it to a salesman. 
Is Renovation Possible ? 
It might well be asked at this point whether the 
possibilities of profitable fruit culture in England are 
such as to justify a serious attempt to renovate the 
orchards capable of being brought into a productive 
state and replace those where renovation is practi¬ 
cally impossible with new ones. In case this 
question should be in the mind of any member of the 
audience I will at once give an answer, and this must 
be in the affirmative. Assuming fruit to be an 
important article of food, and a plentiful supply over 
the longest possible period desirable, it will be 
readily admitted that it would be very much better 
for the farm orchard to be in a condition to supply 
the household with an abundance of fruit during nine 
months of the year than for the farmer to have on 
his holding a large number of unproductive trees 
and have to purchase at the nearest town or village 
foreign fruit, either fresh, dried, or in tins. This is 
not the principal aspect of fruit growing, but it is 
one that deserves the instant attention of both the 
tenant and his landlord, and also of the several 
bodies which exist for the encouragement and 
improvement of rural industries. The most important 
aspect of orchard management is unquestionably the 
production of fruit for profit, and with reference to 
it I have no hesitation in stating that if carried out 
on proper lines it will give a good return. In making 
this assertion I must not be understood as being in 
sympathy with those who would have us believe that 
it is possible to make a fortune in a short time from 
a few acres of fruit trees. What I submit is that 
under proper management orchards will be at least 
as profitable in proportion to their area as any other 
crop that can be grown. They should give a far 
greater profit than the best of the farm crops, and 
add materially to the value of the holding, but it 
will suffice for the purpose of my argument to submit 
that while worthless orchards are unprofitable, those 
in good condition give an ample return for the 
initial outlay and the expenditure incurred in their 
management. 
There are, of course, a large number of both 
tenants and landowners who are ever ready to 
contend that there is no profit in orchards, and to 
declare " That you cannot restore the prosperity of 
agriculture with a few pots of jam.” But these will 
also tell you that “the farmer cannot be made rich 
with a few pats of butter or a few fowls,” and such 
catchy phrases may appear to those who have 
bestowed no thought upon the subject to dispose of 
the question. Let us see whether the culture of 
fruit, the making of jam, and the keeping of poultry 
would, if properly carried out, help the farmer to 
contend with the difficulties inseparable from the 
low prices of his staple crops. I shall not trouble 
you with a large array of figures, but shall confine 
myself to those found in last year’s official returns, 
as they are quite sufficient for my purpose. These 
show that the value of imported fruit was £5, 540,069, 
of poultry £605,458, of eggs £4,184,567, and of butter 
£15,344,083, making the respectable total of 
£27,256,648. I do not suggest that the whole of this 
sum could have been retained in this country, but I 
submit that a very large proportion would have been 
had those concerned fully informed themselves in 
past years as to the possibilities of the demand for 
these so called minor products, and the best means of 
supplying them in abundance, of good quality, and 
in the most attractive and convenient form. I am 
now only concerned with the amount we pay the 
foreign growers for fruit, for the greater part of the 
supply might, and, indeed, should be produced in 
our own orchards and plantations. 
With regard to Apples we imported last year 
6,177,192 bushels of the declared value of £1,582,471 
and I submit that a very small proportion of this 
enormous quantity should have been required from 
the foreign and colonial orchards. In case anyone 
may be inclined to question this assertion I will at 
once state that in no other country are the conditions 
more favourable to the production of Apples of the 
finest quality than are those which obtain in England. 
For proof of this it will suffice to point to the 
splendid Apples that are produced in gardens where 
the trees receive proper attention, even in districts 
that are not particularly favourable to hardy fruits. 
It is not the soil or the climate that makes us so 
largely dependent upon the foreign growers for our 
fruit supplies, but the apathy and ignorance of our 
cultivators. The lamentable state of our orchards is 
one proof of this, and the wretched manner in which 
the principal part of our fruit is placed upon the 
market is another. Not only is there a want of 
care in gathering and packing, but fruit is sent to 
market without regard as to the season, and, in 
consequence, the late Apples that may be had in 
perfection until March or April are sent to market 
in the autumn, witti the result that the prices of the 
early varieties are unduly depressed and the markets 
are almost wholly dependent upon foreign supplies 
after Christmas. 
-=►*>- 
A kind of Beer is made from the Pepper plant by 
the natives of Borneo. 
