In the Highlands of Scotland winter apples can hardly be expected to arrive at perfection, unless when planted against walls. The variety of apples cultivated in this country is by far too numerous to attempt any thing like a complete description: even to enumerate them would be a most difficult task, owing to the great uncertainty of their names among nurserymen, gardeners, and orchardists, and the multiplicity of names under which they are known in different parts of the kingdom. In apples, a greater confusion exists in this respect than in any other description of fruit. This arises not so much from the great number of varieties which are grown, as from the number of growers, some of whom seek to profit by their crops alone, regarding but little their nomenclature. Nurserymen, who are more anxious to grow a large stock for sale than to be careful as to its character, are led into error by taking it for granted that the name of a fruit they propagate is its correct name, and no other: hence arises the frequency of so many of our fruits being sold under wrong names. Gardeners, who purchase trees, become deceived by this procedure, and do not discover the error, unless they have been imposed upon by the substitution of something worthless, wholly and obviously at variance with the character of the fruit that was sold them. This is a serious evil, to say nothing of the disappointment to the purchaser; for, unless the mistake be detected at first, the longer the tree grows before it is discovered, the more time will have been lost in its cultivation; and, be it remembered, this time is irrecoverable. The foregoing descriptions of many of our most popular apples, it is presumed, will be found sufficiently clear, to enable the pomologist to detect these egregious and every-day blunders, and to ascertain whether he cultivates those fruits that have been sold him, or whether he has had others substituted for them. Propagation. There are only two kinds of stocks on which it is desirable to propagate the apple in this country: the Wild Crab, from which our verjuice is obtained, and the Doucin stock. The first is that for our most vigorous and hardy sorts for orchard planting; the second for our more tender and delicate dessert apples, for dwarf trees, and espaliers for the garden. This last is most generally, in our nurseries, called the Paradise stock, although widely different from the Pomme Paradis of the French, a sort not worth growing in this country. In the cider counties, the crab is generally trained up standard high, and when grown sufficiently large for the purpose, it is grafted the height at which it is intended the head of the tree should be formed: this is generally from seven to eight feet from the ground. In the nurseries, all the apples intended for standards are grafted about nine inches high only, allowing them to upon the grow up standard high, and forming the head second year's shoot; but, instead of grafting them, a much better method is to bud them, as they make much better trees in the same length of time. This latter practice is recommended for standards only, as I have always found grafted plants of apples, and also those of pears, plums, and cherries, far superior for dwarfs to those which have been raised from buds. Pruning and Training. With regard to pruning, training, and general management of fruit trees of every description, I wish it to be fully understood, that they cannot be removed from the nursery too soon after the wood has become ripe, and the leaves fallen off; for between this time and the winter many of them will make fresh roots, and be prepared to push forth their young shoots with much more vigour in the spring, than those whose transplanting has been deferred till a late period of the season. It should, therefore, be constantly borne in mind, that where the greatest success is desired in forming new plantations of trees, whether in the orchard or the garden, such necessary precautions should not be lost sight of in order to secure it. The first step to be taken, in order to the accomplishment of this object, is an early and effectual preparation of the soil; and the next, an early transplanting of the trees; the rest will depend upon their subsequent management. On this latter subject I shall give a few short, and, I hope, intelligible directions, under the different heads as they occur, in addition to what has been said when treating of their propagation. Open Standards. Such trees as are intended for open standards should be young, clean, and healthy; their stems should be straight, and their heads should consist of not less than three nor more than four branches, equal in strength, and regularly placed: these will be sufficient to form the principal limbs, for the support of the largest heads that can be required. The trees should be staked as soon as planted, in order to keep them upright, and to secure them against violent winds. They should not be headed down the first year, nor will they require to be headed down afterwards, in such trees whose growth is upright; but such as are of a pendent growth should remain till they are well established in the ground; and may then be headed down, leaving the branches nine or twelve inches long, when the young shoots will assume a more upright direction. At the end of the year these should be thinned out, selecting those which are the best placed and most regular in their growth for forming the future head. After this, nothing more will be necessary than to look them over from time to time, cutting out carefully any superabundant branches which may appear, particularly those which have a tendency to injure the proper figure of the head, or are likely to become stronger than the rest these latter, if suffered to remain, will injure any description of tree, whether it be a standard, an espalier, or whether it be trained against a wall. Open Dwarfs. Open dwarfs are such as are generally planted on the borders, or in the quarters of the garden, and consist of such as are intended to furnish fruit for the dessert only : those for the kitchen more properly belong to the orchard department. Besides, open dwarfs should consist of those kinds whose wood is short, slender, and easily kept within a moderate compass; this latter object |
