August  25,  1898. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER . 
143 
severely  prune  and  manure  the  trees  so  that  the  Apples  they  do  grow 
may  be  the  best  possible  sample  of  their  kind.  There  are  plenty  of 
trees  in  the  country  of  the  very  best  kinds  that  get  none  of  the 
attention  necessary  to  insure  success,  and  if  I  could  persuade  all 
growers  who  have  such  trees  to  take  prompt  and  proper  measures,  I 
am  quite  convinced  I  should  do  a  vast  deal  for  British  Apple  growing. 
Apples  Deopping. 
I  am  told  the  dry  weather  is  bad  for  Apples,  and  that  they  are 
dropping  off  at  a  great  rate.  No  doubt  they  do  drop  a  good  deal, 
hut  it  will  he  found  the  fruits  that  fall  off  are  in  most  cases  better  off 
the  tree  than  on,  both  for  the  sake  of  the  tree  and  for  the  grower  too. 
A  very  ’well-known  Apple  grower  told  me  once  that  he  wasn’t 
satisfied  with  his  plantations  if  he  didn’t  see  a  lot  of  Apples  on  the 
ground  at  this  time  of  year.  His  contention  was  that  just  now  the 
fruit  should  be  growing  fast,  and,  if  it  did  so,  as  a  natural  consequence 
many  must  be  crowded  off  the  trees.  If  they  were  not  falling  my 
friend  was  certain  he  had  not  sufficient  of  a  crop  for  them  to  be 
touching  each  other,  or  the  fruit  was  not  growing  out  as  it  should  do. 
This  is  certainly  true,  and  a  slight  dropping  in  the  Apples  now  is  not 
a  sign  of  their  suffering  from  drought  or  anything  else.  At  the  same 
time  I  have  myself  seen  trees  that  have  no  fruit  to  spare  at  all,  yet 
the  ground  beneath  is  thickly  sprinkled  with  fair-sized  Apples.  This 
must  be  due  to  unkindliness  of  some  description,  probably  the  after¬ 
effects  of  an  attack  of  insects  earlier  in  the  year. 
Thinning  Branches. 
Apple  trees,  especially  young  ones  from  five  to  ten  years  ole  y  will 
pay  well  now  for  a  little  attention  with  the  pruning  knife.  Our 
cousins,  the  Yankees,  understand  a  good  many  of  these  matters  quite 
as  well  as  we  do,  and  they  always  have  their  trees  thinned  out 
immediately  after  the  fruit  is  picked.  The  correct  plan  is  to  thin  out 
the  superfluous  central  wood  so  as  to  admit  all  the  light  and  air 
possible  to  ripen  the  main  branches  that  are  to  stand  the  winter.  If 
done  too  early  in  the  year  the  trees  will  make  a  fresh  shoot,  which 
does  harm  rather  than  good.  The  month  of  August  will  be  found  the 
best  time  for  this  summer  pruning. 
Gathering  Fruit. 
It  will  soon  be  time  to  think  about  and  make  preparations  for  the 
ingathering  of  the  keeping  kinds  of  Apples  and  Pears.  This  part  of 
the  fruit  grower’s  business  appears  to  me  to  be  quite  one  of  the  most 
important  operations  in  the  yearly  round,  and  yet  it  is  one  that  is 
oftentimes,  I  may  say  generally,  done  in  a  most  slip-shod  way.  The 
basket  must  he  lined  with  a  piece  of  old  sacking  or  some  similar  soft 
sub'tance,  and  have  a  hook  attached  with  which  to  hang  it  on  to  the 
steps  of  the  ladder,  or  possibly  a  limb  of  the  tree.  The  first  few  fruits 
picked  should  be  very  carefully  placed  in  the  basket,  not  dropped  in, 
and  throughout  the  whole  operation  the  picker  should  take  care  his 
basket  is  never  violently  jolted  about,  or,  in  fact,  anything  done  to 
make  the  fruits  jolt  over  one  another.  For  conveying  fruit  to  the 
store,  a  spring  van  only  should  he  used. 
Packing  Apples. 
T  should  like  to  say  just  a  word  against  the  practice  of  putting  the 
best  large  cooking  Apples  in  half-sieves.  This  is  very  generally  done 
but  it  is  by  no  means  a  good  plan.  A  half-sieve  of  large  sized  Apples 
does  not  contain  much  more  than  three  or  four  layers,  and  in  the 
packing,  loading,  and  general  knocking  about  the  sieve  gets  before 
reaching  its  final  destination  the  bottom  layer  becomes  more  or  less 
bruised,  wh’le  the  top  layer  suffers  in  the  same  way  from  the  packing 
sticks,  or  possibly  from  the  gentle  railway  porter's  hob-nailed  boots  when 
he  is  dancing  on  the  baskets  to  make  them  fit  the  truck.  The  result  is 
that  there  is  only  one,  or  at  most  two,  layers  that  arrive  at  their  destina¬ 
tion  unharmed.  If  the  same  fruit  is  packed  in  bushel  sieves  or  barrels  the 
bru'sing  is  necessarily  much  less,  and  the  fruit  is  more  saleable  in  con¬ 
sequence.  Dessert  Apples  are  best  in  half-sieves,  but  for  almost  all 
other  kinds  the  larger  package  is  a  great  deal  the  best. 
Storing  Apples. 
A  dark  place  is  best  for  storing  Apples,  the  ground  floor  being 
preferable  to  one  raised,  although  much  excellent  fruit  has  been  laid 
upon  the  oast-house  floors  so  common  in  the  county,  and  has  done 
well  there.  For  keeping  a  long  time  the  fruit  should  not  be  laid  too 
thickly,  2  feet  to  2£  feet  being  ample.  The  thicker  the  heap  the 
sooner  the  stage  of  sweating  is  reached,  and  if  laid  very  thick  Apples 
will  not  survive  this  process  very  long.  For  this  reason  it  is  good  to 
lay  fruit  for  rapid  colouring  and  early  marketing  as  thickly  as  possible. 
On  no  account  should  the  fruit  be  covered  till  one  is  compelled  to  do 
so  to  protect  it  from  frost.  Wellington  Apples  are  about  the  most 
liable  of  any  of  our  sorts  to  take  harm  from  careless  handling,  and  at 
the  same  time  they  are  one  of  the  most  valuable  varieties.  I  would 
specially  caution  growers  who  have  any  crop  of  this  sort  to  take  great 
pains  with  them. 
Keeping  Fruit. 
One  or  two  simple  rules  as  to  the  care  of  hard  fruit  when  in  store 
are  worth  mention.  On  no  account  place  any  covering  over  the  fruit. 
Gathered  in  a  more  or  less  green  state  Apples  and  Pears  always  set  up 
a  certain  amount  of  heat,  and  if  this  is  precipitated  on  to  the  heap, 
instead  of  being  allowed  to  disperse,  decay  must  follow  in  a  short 
time.  Allow  the  store  room  all  the  air  possible.  It  is  not  essential  ta 
admit  any  light ;  in  fact  the  fruit  keeps  better  in  a  dark  place,  but 
during  the  heating  time  as  much  fresh  air  as  possible  is  desirable. 
Avoid  making  dust  in  or  near  the  room,  as  when  the  fruit  becomes 
mellow  the  skin  gets  just  sufficiently  damp  to  retain  all  the  particles 
of  dust  and  dirt  that  may  be  stirred  up  in  its  immediate  vicinity. 
Of  course  this  spoils  its  appearance ;  once  on,  it  is  perfectly  impossible 
to  get  dirt  off  again  without  spoiling  the  bloom  of  the  fruit.  A  slight 
watering  around  with  an  ordinary  can  having  a  rose  nozzle,  every 
now  and  then,  will  help  to  decrease  the  trouble,  and  the  damp  will 
Fig.  26. — Cypripediuji  Olivia. 
not  harm  the  fruit  in  the  least,  even  in  the  store  itself ;  in  fact  where 
fruit  is  kept  laid  singly  for  show  purposes  it  is  necessary  to  moisten 
the  floor  of  the  room  occasionally  to  prevent  it  from  shrinking. 
New  and  Old  Varieties. 
There  are  one  or  two  points  in  connection  with  planting  fruit  that 
should  never  be  lost  sight  of.  The  first  is  to  as  far  as  possible  adapt 
your  kinds  to  the  soil.  I  am  quite  aware  of  the  fact  that  if  this 
rule  were  rigidly  carried  out  no  new  kinds  would  ever  get  a  chance, 
but  I  say,  “  Try  new  kinds  by  all  means,  but  only  plant  a  tree  or 
two.”  Some  of  our  best  market  sorts  will  flourish  and  crop  splendidly 
in  stiff,  heavy  soils,  whereas  if  planted  on  light,  stony  land  they 
seldom  crop,  and  the  tree  refuses  to  thrive.  “  Do  not  plant  too 
many  varieties;”  an  acre  or  two  of  each  kind  is  none  too  much,  in 
fact  our  bis  growers  nowadays  have  many  pieces  of  10  acres  all  one 
kind.  Jumbling  up  of  some  dozen  or  twenty  sorts  in  one  planta¬ 
tion  is  one  of  the  curses  of  our  home-grown  stuff.  Our  friends 
the  Americans  know  far  better  than  we  how  to  catir  for  British 
markets,  and  they  restrict  themselves  to  some  six  or  eight  kinds, 
whereas  I  suppose  our  farmers  do  not  stop  at  106,  many  of  which  are 
absolutely  useless  for  sale. 
Cutting  and  Slashing  Trees. 
I  should  like  to  say  a  word  against  the  treatment  generally  meted 
out  to  young  trees,  both  bush  Iruits  and  standards,  in  the  matter  of 
pruning.  Given  a  young  tree  of,  say,  two  or  three  years’  growth  that 
has  made  a  good  start  in  life,  your  average  cutter  will  prune  it  just 
the  same — that  is  to  say,  he  will  cut  rather  more  than  half  the 
current  year’s  shoot  away  for  the  next  three  or  four  years  of  its 
existence.  In  this  way  the  tree  is  certainly  kept  health)-,  but  it 
practically  does  nothing  mere  than  make  wood,  and  far  too  much  of 
that ;  so  year  by  year  the  cutter  has  more  superfluous  wood  to  take 
out,  and  this  treatment  forces  the  tree  to  make  renewed  efforts  at 
