October  10,  1901. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
331 
a  free  I  earer  it  is  often  found  that  the  whole  of  the  crop  cannot  be 
used  owing  to  the  later  fruits  being  mealy  and  tasteless.  Duchess  of 
Oldenburg  and  Mr.  Gladstone  are  both  soft  and  wanting  in  flavour, 
but  the  very  early  date  at  which  the  latter  is  fit  for  use  renders  it 
useful.  Lady  Sudeley,  again,  has  the  same  fault,  handsome  though  it 
is,  and  will  never  become  really  popular  on  this  account.  The  large 
handsome  fruits  of  Worcester  Pearmain  endear  it  to  shopkeepers  and 
maiket  gardeners,  but  as  to  quality,  the  less  said  the  better. 
King  Pippin,  and  Yellow  Ingestrie  are  rather  better;  so  is  Red 
Astrachan,  but  there  is  room  for  improvement  in  all.  I  suppose  we 
shall  look  in  vain  for  an  early  Apple  with  the  flavour  of  Cox’s 
Orange  and  other  late  maturing  sorts,  but  when  one  considers  the 
large  number  of  new  fruits  sent  out  annually  it  is  remarkable  that  we 
have  not  yet  succeeded  in  getting  a  really  distinct  improvement  on 
the  old  sorts,  for  that ,  the  majority  of  the  new  ones  are  certainly  not. 
— H.  Richabds. 
- - 
Indoor  Fruit  Culture." 
APPLE  GALLOWAY  PIPPIN. 
a  man’s  finger,  and  the  trees  all  carried  a  heavy  crop  the  ensuing 
sea-' on.  I  may  say  in  passing,  that  by  far  the  most  satisfactory  time 
to  transplant  large  trees  is  just  before  the  foliage  turns  colour 
preparatory  to  falling. 
Qualities  of  Soil. 
The  fact  of  splendid  fruit  crops  being  produced  on  soils  of  widely 
differing  character  shows  plainly  that  almost  any  class  of  soil  may  be 
rendered  suitable  for  the  purpose.  The  gardener  with  an  unchangeable 
formula  for  his  Vine  or  Peach  borders  is,  or  should  be,  a  thing  of  the 
past.  Tons  of  the  finest  Grapes  that  are  annually  sent  to  our  markets 
are  grown  on  the  natural  soil  of  the  locality  in  which  the  growers 
have  settled,  with  no  further  preparation  than  trenching  and  the 
addition  of  suitable  manures.  I  am  not  saying  that  this  cheap 
preparation  would  answer  in  all  places.  Market  growers  are  shrewd 
men  of  business,  aod  one  of  the  first  considerations  before  they  decide 
upon  a  site  for  their  houses  would  naturally  be  a  good  depth  of  fertile 
soil.  Private  gardeners  are  sadly  handicapped  in  comparison  with  these 
men.  They  have  to  produce  good  crops  of  fruit,  no  matter  what  the 
nature  of  the  soil,  and  where  this  is  really  unsuitable  it  is,  of  course, 
necessary  to  excavate  and  provide  fresh  suitable  soil  for  the  borders. 
Again,  with  respect  to  concrete  bottoms  and  elaborate  systems  of 
drainage,  these  are  often  entered  upon  at  great  expense  to  the  owners 
where  they  are  really  unnecessary.  No  gardener  who  has  the  true 
interest  of  his  employer  at  heart  would  recommend  the  planting  of 
Vines,  Peaches,  or  other  fruits  on  the  natural  sail  unless  he  had  good 
reasons  for  thinking  that  the  results  w  uld  be  gopd.  Neither  would 
he,  on  the  other  hand,  put  his  employer  to  the  expense  of  border 
APPLE  ALL  RISTON. 
The  culture  of  high-class  indtor  fruit  is  one  of  the  most  important 
phases  of  a  gardener’s  training,  and  as  the  glass  protection  insures  him 
a  yearly  full  crop,  independent  ot  the  season,  it  must  also  be  regarded 
as  one  of  the  most  profitable.  It  would  be  useless  with  the  short  time 
APPLE  COCKLE’S  PIPPIN. 
at  my  disposal  to  give  anything  approaching  a  full  digest  of  the 
matter,  and  I  shall  therefore  confine  myself  to  a  few  of  the  most 
popular  fruits,  and  refer  briefly  to  certain  points  in  their  culture  that 
are  occasionally  overlooked*  First  as  to 
Soli. 
All  books  on  fruit  culture  give  the  constituents  of  the  compost  for 
the  various  trees,  and  all  agree  that  its  proper  proportion  is  a  very 
important  detail  ;  but  a  fact  that  is  not  so  frequently  mentioned,  is, 
that  fruit  trees  of  all  kinds  grown  under  glass  need  these  composts 
very  firmly  placed.  When  making  borders  for  Vines,  Peaches, 
Nectarines,  Figs,  and  other  fruits,  the  nature  of  the  loam  used  must 
be  taken  into  consideration,  and  the  heaviest  class  of  soil  need  not  be 
quite  so  firmly  rammed  as  those  of  a  lighter  description.  But  as 
showing  how  firm  the  borders  ought  to  be,  I  may  mention  that  in 
preparing  fruit  borders  of  a  very  heavy  loam  in  Suffolk,  I  always  allowed 
three  men  with  rammers  to  one  filling  in,  the  result  being  a  border 
almost  as  firm  and  hard  as  a  road.  In  this  class  of  border  the  roots 
produced  are  hard  ;  they  ramily  more  freely  than  they  would  in  a  loose 
compost,  having  a  greater  number  of  feeding  points,  and  are  in  every 
way  more  satisfactory.  As  showing  the  advantages  of  this  I  planted 
a  large  span-roofed  house  of  Peaches  and  Nectarines  some  years  ago, 
and  although  most  of  the  varieties  were  very  strong  growers,  including 
the  vigorous  Early  Rivers  Nectarine,  yet  I  had  no  occasion  for  root- 
pruning  until  the  trees  filled  the  house.  Three  years  later  1  lifted 
every  other  tree  to  give  the  remaining  odos  room,  and  so  well  had  the 
roots  kept  in  their  place  that  very  few  of  those  cut  were  larger  than 
rvrur~^rz~i:: 
*  The  essay  on  the  above  subject  was  delivered  before  the  Bristol  and 
District  Gardeners’  Mutual  Improvement  ‘Association'  in  May  last,  by  our 
able  and  experienced  friend  Mr.  H.  R.  Richards. 
