Small's Admirable, winter and spring; (9) Betty Geeson, winter and spring, free; (10) Bismarck, fine colour, winter and spring; (11) Beauty of Hants, a compact form of the Blenheim, good also for table; (12) Lane's Prince Albert, free, valuable, winter and spring. For a limited selection Nos. 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 12 may be chosen, and several trees each of Nos. 3, 4 and 12 have afforded

profitable crops. Dessert varieties:-Mr. Gladstone, early summer, to be eaten off the tree; Irish Peach, late summer, good; Yellow Ingestrie, autumn; Claygate Pearmain, winter; Cox's Orange Pippin, winter-the best of all dessert apples; Court Pendû Plat, spring.

Bushes for growing nine to twelve feet apart on dwarfing stocks.-Any or all those named for mediumsized standards, with, as culinary varieties, Manks' Codlin, Carlisle Codlin, Lord Suffield, Yorkshire Beauty, Cellini, Golden Spire, Frogmore Prolific, Peasgood's Nonesuch, Gascoigne's Seedling, Queen Caroline, The Sandringham, Seaton House, Newton Wonder, Bramley's Seedling; and as Dessert, Red Astrachan, Beauty of Bath, Williams' Favourite, Benoni, American Mother, Fearn's Pippin, Ribston Pippin, but prone to canker, Mannington Pearmain, Baxter's Pearmain, Scarlet Nonpareil, Braddick's Nonpareil, Lord Burghley and Sturmer Pippin.

All the varieties named are of proved merit, and if any fail through soil peculiarities, it is wise to cut them down and graft with varieties that are found to give the most satisfaction-a practice that is not nearly so general as its merits demand.

PEARS. Though the pear is the prince of hardy dessert fruits it is much less useful than the apple. The following varieties may be grown on bushes (mainly on quince stocks), except in cold localities or exposed positions :—

(1) Summer Doyenné (Doyenné d'Eté), the earliest pear, small, a favourite at garden parties, and sells freely in good markets; (2) Williams' Bon Chrêtien; (3) Beurré d'Amanlis; (4) Beurré Superfin; (5) Beurré Hardy ; (6) Marie Louise, on pear stock; (7) Maréchal de Cour; (8) Louise Bonne of Jersey; (9) Pitmaston Duchess, large, profitable on the pear stock; (10) Durondeau ; (11) Doyenné du Comice; (12) Emile d'Heyst. Good later varieties for walls are Glou Morçeau, Josephine d'Malines, Winter Nelis and Bergamotte Esperen. The varieties named will afford a supply of fruit for nine months. For a limited selection, Nos. 2, 4, 7, 8, 9 and II may be chosen, with any one or more of the late varieties for walls. As orchard standards Jargonelle, Hessle and Rivers' Fertility are as reliable as any, and Catillac is one of the best of stewing pears.

PLUMS. These rank next to apples in usefulness. Mr. Rivers, an extensive grower, and the raiser of many varieties, finds Rivers' Prolific, the Czar, Oullins' Golden, Cox's Emperor and Monarch the most profitable at Sawbridgworth, Herts. The late Archdeacon Lea, after trying fifty-one varieties for several years in Worcestershire, recommended Rivers' Prolific, Victoria, Pershore, Diamond, and Pond's Seedling for productiveness. The last-named is one of the largest and the Victoria one of the most reliable bearers. Three richly-flavoured plums for dessert are Belgian Purple, Denniston's Superb, and Rivers' Transparent Gage. Damsons -Crittenden, small, an early and abundant bearer. The Prune, large, and Bradley's King, a fine new variety.

CHERRIES. For eating: Early Rivers, Elton, Archduke, Black Bigarreau and Black Eagle. For cooking: Kentish and Morello, very useful, and birds leave them till the last.

GOOSEBERRIES.-For gathering green: Keepsake, or Berry's Early Kent, Whinham's Industry, Crown Bob and Whitesmith. For preserving ripe: Warrington. For eating ripe: Early Sulphur and Whitesmith, white; Red Champage and Warrington, red.

CURRANTS.-Red Dutch and Victoria, or Raby Castle, red; Black Naples and Lee's Prolific, black; and White Dutch.

RASPBERRIES. Carter's Prolific, Superlative and Rivers' Hornet, for summer; October Red, for autumn; Sweet Yellow Antwerp, for dessert.

BLACKBERRIES OR BRAMBLES.-For training up old walls, trellises, or arching over walks, the parsley-leaved brambles bear large clusters of fine fruit in October. The planting and cultivation is similar to that indicated for raspberries in the earlier part of this article, but the plants require thrice the space. Hedges may be formed on stout trelliswork.

STRAWBERRIES.-Noble, large, early, but lacking in quality, sells well; Vicomtesse Héricart de Thury, early, hardy, and productive; Sir Joseph Paxton, the most extensively grown of all, and President, midseason; Waterloo and Frogmore Pine, good late varieties. For high quality, British Queen and Dr. Hogg. The three most serviceable are Sir Joseph Paxton, Vicomtesse Héricart de Thury, and President. Plant eighteen inches apart in rows thirty inches asunder, as soon as strong, wellrooted runners can be obtained in the summer or autumn, in deep yet firm fertile soil, covering the surface with manure to decay in position.

OTHER HARDY FRUITS FOR SPECIAL POSITIONS.-For warm, sunny walls: early Moorpark or Hemskerk apricots; brown Turkey or White Marseilles figs; Hale's Early, Rivers' Early York, Dymond and Sea Eagle

peaches; Lord Napier and Stanwick Elrurge nectarines; Black Cluster and Chasselas Vibert grapes. For open situations: Lambert's filbert and Pearson's Prolific nuts; Pear-shaped quince; Royal Medlar and Large Black mulberry.

The above selections of fruits are reduced mainly from the author's list as prepared for the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers, also from the Royal Horticultural Society's "Selections for Cottagers," as prepared by the fruit committee of that society; and the enumeration includes the best and most serviceable varieties of the different kinds that are grown in this country.

J. WRIGHT.

CHAPTER L.

FRUIT GROWING.

BY PRINCIPAL BOND,

Director of the Horticultural College; Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society.

66

THIRTY years ago," said an old man to the writer, in the spring of 1890-"Thirty years ago there was nothing but woodland in this district for miles, right away to the south, past the village of C, now it has all been cleared by the fruit growers. Ah, when I was a boy the corn farmers had all the money in these parts, but they have almost all gone, and the fruit growers seem to reign in their stead; why there's Tom D— and his brother, whom I have seen many a time hoeing with their father in that field yonder, one's worth thirty thousand and the other more than that, all made out of fruit "—and so the old man chatted on, furnishing evidence that those who had been able to vary and develop their farming with the changing, progressive times, had no reason to complain, as so many have been heard to do of late years that farming doesn't pay.

way,

Now, the men referred to above had began in a small with very little capital, and gradually adding acre to acre and field to field, had become large landholders, and in some instances landowners. Success has attended similar operations in other parts of England, and such