LETTER XI.

THE MANAGEMENT OF FRUIT TREES.--PLANTING.--PROTECTING THE BLOSSOMS.--STONE FRUITS.--FIG TREES.--GRAPES.--MANAGEMENT OF A VINERY.--GROWING PINE-APPLES.--FORCING PEACHES AND NECTARINES.--STANDARD FRUIT TREES.--KERNEL FRUITS.--FRUIT SHRUBS.--STRAWBERRIES.--TART-RHUBARB.

The fruit trees in a kitchen-garden should be all trained against the walls, and those trees which are grown as standards should be in a separate garden or orchard. The walls are best when about eight feet high, and they should have strong hooks or holdfasts built into them at the top, for the convenience of supporting a wooden coping, or of suspending mats or nets. Some persons recommend the walls to be built on arches; but this is a bad plan, as it is of importance to the gardener to confine the roots as much as possible to the border within the garden. The roots of fruit trees should never go deeply into the ground, as, if the roots are suffered to get so deep as to be out of the reach of the air, the trees will produce more leaves and branches than fruit. On this account care should be taken that the soil should not be more than eighteen inches deep; and the easiest and most effectual mode of doing this is, to dig out the border to the depth of two feet, and put a layer of brick-bats and other rubbish covered with gravel well rammed down to the depth of six inches, and to fill up the remaining eighteen inches with a fine rich mould. When a fruit tree border is in its proper state, the gardener should always be able to show the fibrous roots of his trees by removing a little of the earth with his hand. When the trees are planted the roots should be carefully spread out to their full extent, and care should be taken always to keep the collar of the plant above the earth, as when it is buried the tree is very liable to become cankered. As the blossoms of peaches, apricots, and nectarines appear early, they are very liable to be injured by spring frosts, and many plans have been devised for protecting them. All, however, are liable, more or less, to objection, as it is extremely difficult to put up mats without knocking off the blossoms. The best way is to have a deep wooden coping placed on the holdfasts that were let into the wall, with hooks in front, from which a curtain of bunting may be suspended, which should be kept up night and day during frosty weather; as there is quite as much danger from the sun during frosty weather, as from the frost. In fact, in most cases where plants are injured by frost, it is in consequence of a warm sunny day having succeeded a severely cold night.

_Peaches_ and _nectarines_ are the most valuable of our wall fruit trees. They should be grown in tolerably rich soil, but which has been enriched with decayed leaves rather than animal manure; as, when they are manured with dung, they are very apt to produce what are called water shoots or gourmands, that is, strong vigorous shoots without any blossom buds. Peach trees are generally kept in the nursery till they are three or four years old, and they should be removed about the latter end of October, or the beginning of November. They are best trained in the fan manner, that is, with the branches spread out regularly against the wall in the shape of a fan; and, as they always bear their fruit on shoots of a year old, those shoots must be left on in pruning, and the old wood cut out. The pruning should be performed either in November or February; but the trees should never be cut during a severe frost. When the fruit has stoned it is thinned out, and never more than two should be left growing together.

Peaches and nectarines are generally grafted close to the ground, so as to make dwarf trees, and they are considered best planted about twenty feet apart, with some kind of plum or cherry, grafted standard high, placed between them.

_Apricots_ are trained somewhat horizontally, and they bear not only on the shoots of the last year, but on close spurs formed by the two years' old wood. Apricot trees are very apt to have large limbs die off without any apparent cause; but this may be prevented by covering all the principal limbs in October with hay-bands, and letting them remain on till all danger is over from frost. Apricot trees should be five and twenty feet apart on the wall, as they spread rapidly, and do not bear cutting in. The fruit should be thinned in May, or the beginning of June.

_Plum trees_ will bear a little manure being laid on the surface in autumn, and slightly forked in in spring. They are trained horizontally, and they bear on what are called spurs; that is, short rugged-looking little branches, jutting out from shoots two or three years old, and which will continue fruitful for several years. Plum trees, in consequence, require very little pruning; and, in fact, as they are apt to gum when they are wounded, they should be very seldom touched with a knife.

_Cherry trees_ resemble plum trees in their culture, and, when grown against a wall, most of the kinds are trained horizontally, and their branches kept six or eight inches apart. The morello cherry is, however, an exception to this rule, as it requires pruning and training, like the peach.

_Fig trees_ should never be pruned, except to remove shoots that cannot be trained, as the fruit is produced on the young wood at the extremity of the branches. Fig trees should be planted thirty feet apart, and trained horizontally, their long branches being bent backwards and forwards, in order to make them throw out side shoots for bearing fruit, which they will generally do where the bend is made. Fig trees require to be well supplied with water, though they will not grow if any stagnant water be suffered to remain about the roots.

The _pomegranate_ resembles the fig tree in producing its flowers only on the points of its shoots, and on short twigs projecting from its trained branches. Pomegranates require a rich soil; and when it is wished to throw them into fruit, the blossoms should be shaded during the time of expansion, as otherwise the pollen will dry up without fertilising the stigma.

_Grapes_ are frequently grown against a wall in the open air; and in some cases, as, for example, by Mr. Clement Hoare, near Southampton, with very great success. Grapes have been also produced of excellent quality against a flued wall; that is, a hollow wall heated by means of flues in it, as at Erskine, near Greenock; but as, in both cases, extraordinary care is required, I would advise you only to have a common sweet-water vine or two in your garden on the open wall, for the purpose of using its leaves in garnishing, and to grow vines in a vinery to produce the grapes you require for the table.

A vinery is a common hothouse or bark stove, heated with hot-water pipes or flues, and with a pit in the centre, which is generally filled with tan for pines. This appears a very simple and economical arrangement, but it has one great disadvantage; namely, that the pines require heat at a season when the vines should be in perfect repose, unless very early crops of grapes are desired. In other cases the centre of the vinery is planted with peach and nectarine trees for early forcing, the branches of the trees being trained over a curved trellis, and other peach and nectarine trees or vines, planted in the house, being trained against a trellis at the back. The vines for the main crop are, however, planted on the outside of the house, in a border prepared like that for the fruit trees, but richer; and their stems are brought into the vinery, through holes left for that purpose in the front wall. Several compositions have been recommended for making a compost for a vine border; but that most approved is, two parts of turfy loam mixed with one part of very rotten dung or decayed leaves, one part of lime rubbish, and one part of road drift. On the Continent they frequently bury the parts cut off the vine in pruning, in the border, and this is said to make excellent manure.

Vines are generally not planted in the border till about a year old, and they are best struck from cuttings of one bud or eye each, with about half an inch of stem left above and below the eye; the cutting is then planted in a small pot (60), and covered with soil half an inch thick, after which the pot is plunged to the rim in a common hotbed, or into the tan-pit in the centre of the vinery, covering it in the latter case with a hand-glass; the object being to keep the young plant growing in a moist heat of 60°. The young plants should be afterwards shifted into larger and larger pots, as they require it; and their stems, which will grow rapidly, should be trained either to a single stick or to a framework of sticks tied together, according as the plant is wanted to be spreading or trained to a single stem. If the eye has been a large and healthy one, and the wood of the stem from which it was taken firm and well ripened, the cuttings will grow rapidly. Care must be taken to give the young plant a gentle sprinkling of water every four or five days, and to let it have plenty of air, and not too much heat from the bed. The water should be given at night, and the glasses of the frame should be shut close immediately, as the steam thus generated is found very beneficial to the young plant. As when the plant is shifted the first time the stem, or cane as it is called, is generally six or eight inches long, great care must be taken not to injure either it or the spongioles of the roots in shifting; and, as the stem or cane is of course always longer every time the plants are shifted, additional care is required every time of performing the operation. While the plant is in the hotbed, the wires or tendrils, and also the weak lateral shoots, must be pinched off as fast as they are produced.

If the cutting was made in the first week of March, and has been properly treated, it will have a strong stem of ten or twelve feet long, and perhaps more, by the middle of June or the beginning of July. Many gardeners advise planting the vines out at this season, as they say they grow more vigorously, and form better wood, with only their stems in the hothouse, than when they are confined to the moist close heat of the bed. Other gardeners, however, keep their young vines in the pots till the following February, when the canes are generally five feet long, and as thick as the little finger.

When the plants are put into the ground there should be one vine to each hole; and, as every hole is made opposite a rafter, there is thus one vine allotted to every sash or light. A shallow pit is made in the ground for each vine, and, the pot being either broken with the spade or the plant carefully turned out of it, the ball of earth containing the roots is placed in the pit, in such a manner as to leave the cane as nearly as possible in the same position as it occupied when the plant was in the pot. The ball of earth is then covered with light rich mould about two inches thick, and the stem of the vine is brought through the hole in the wall into the house. This is an operation of some difficulty, particularly if the cane be long, and it is carefully wrapped up in matting or in hay-bands, to prevent it from receiving any injury. While the vines are in pots they are pruned, so as to leave only the main shoot, or at most two shoots, in case one should be broken off; and in the latter case, as soon as the main shoot has been safely introduced and attached to the rafter, the other is removed. The side shoots are also taken off as they appear till the main shoot has reached nearly to the end of the rafter, when its point is pinched off, and the strongest of the side shoots are allowed to develop themselves.

If the vine was planted in May or June the same year the cutting was struck, and nothing else is in the vinery, it should be allowed to remain all summer with the glasses off, and without fire heat; in September, however, the glasses should be put on, and enough heat applied to keep the temperature of the house at 55° or 60°, but always giving air in the middle of the day, in order to ripen the wood. In December, when the leaves begin to fall, the vines should be pruned, and they should then have a season of rest, till the leaf-buds begin to swell in spring. When only vines, or vines and peaches, are grown in a vinery, it is easy to give this season of rest by leaving off all fire heat, except what is necessary to keep out the frost, till the middle of February; but, when pines are grown in the same house, the stems of the vines are generally drawn out of the house during part of December, January, and February, and kept on the outside carefully wrapped up in mats and hay-bands, or laid along the ground and covered thickly with dead leaves and straw. The vine border should always be covered in the same manner during frosty weather, as neither stems nor roots should ever be exposed to a greater degree of cold than 40°. When the vines are planted out in June, they should not be suffered to bear any fruit that year; but, when they are not planted out till the February following, they may be allowed to bear one or two bunches each the following summer.

In pruning the vine great care should be taken never to cut close to a bud or eye, but generally to cut through the stem just in the middle of the internode or space between the buds, or at least half an inch from the bud left. The sap of the vine rises with great force; and if the pruning be delayed till spring, or if the cut be made too near the bud, the sap will flow profusely, and will very seriously weaken the plant. English gardeners call this overflowing of the sap bleeding; but on the Continent they call it the tears of the vine. There are three modes of pruning and training the vine; but the best for vineries is what is called the spurring-in system. This consists in training the plant with one long main shoot, which is always suffered to remain, and shortening the strongest of the side shoots to one or two eyes every winter, and removing those that are weakly, or that grow too closely together, as the shoots left, which are called the spurs, should always be about twelve inches apart.

The time of beginning to force grape vines depends upon the season at which the grapes are wanted, but the usual season is February. The cane of the vine is then taken into the house, if it has been wintered outside, and carefully trained to the rafter, the part next the ground being still kept wrapped round with hay-bands, and the hole stopped close round the stem, so as to prevent the vine receiving any check from the cold of the external air. Want of attention to this particular is very apt to produce a disease in the vines, which ends in what is called shanking, that is, a shriveling of the short stems of the grapes after they have set. The vine border has then its winter covering removed; and, after being forked over, a coating is laid on of rotten dung, two or three inches thick; or, what is better, a coating is laid on of turfy loam chopped up, and old lime mortar, about two inches deep, and on that a coating of rotten dung, two inches thick; over these may be replaced the coating of decayed leaves a foot thick, and straw or reed mat, which was laid on the bed during the severe frosts of winter. The grand point is, to keep the roots and part outside the house in the same temperature as that within, or even warmer.

When fire heat is first applied, the thermometer should be 55° at night, and 60° or 65° in the day; but the heat should be gradually increased as the buds begin to swell, keeping the heat at night about 10° lower than that of the day till the flower-buds appear, when the spurs are generally stopped about one bud beyond the flower-bud, and the leaf-shoots, which are opposite the flower-buds, are each stopped at a single leaf. The bunches must also be thinned, and not more than nine or ten allowed to each vine, if trained in the spur manner. The heat of the house should now be about 80° by day and 70° by night, and a little air should be given for half an hour every day, whenever it can be done without lowering the temperature below 74°. The hot-water pipes or flues should be frequently sprinkled with water when the vines are going out of flower, and the grapes beginning to swell; and the grapes in each bunch should be thinned out with a pair of scissors, and the shoulders of the bunches tied up to allow the grapes to swell. The house should now be at its greatest heat, viz. 85° by day, and 74° or 75° at night; air should be given freely, whenever it can be done without lowering the temperature below 77°; and the hot-water pipes should be sprinkled with water six or eight times during the twenty-four hours. When the fruit begins to change colour for ripening, this sprinkling should be left off, and air admitted freely, even at night, whenever it can be done without lowering the temperature too much. During the whole of the forcing, the border should be watered with dung water; and, as soon as all danger from frost is over, the leaves and straw should be thrown off, and the bed slightly forked over, to admit the warmth of the sun to penetrate the earth, and the air to reach the roots of the vines, as unless the air is allowed to reach the roots the grapes will not set well.

If the forcing was commenced in February, the grapes will be ripe in July and August; the Sweetwaters ripening first, the Hamburgs next, and the West's St. Peter's and Muscat of Alexandria last. When grapes are wished to be ripe in May or June, the forcing must begin the first of December, and pines may be grown with the same heat as will be required for the vines; but, when this is the case, the vines must have an artificial winter given to them, by ceasing all fire heat as soon as the fruit is cut, and taking off the sashes; the stems are afterwards kept in the shade, and as cool as possible through September and October, and they are pruned in November. When, on the contrary, grapes are not required before September, very little forcing is requisite; but the bunches of grapes must be carefully thinned, and not more than ten or twelve bunches should be allowed on each vine. When the vines are in flower and the fruit setting, the house should be kept close, and the pipes or flues frequently sprinkled with water; as a hot dry air makes the calyx shrivel up before the pollen has reached the ovary, and, when this is the case, the grapes will be small and frequently without stones.

It would take too much space to explain to you the other methods of training and pruning, and I need only say that the long method, which is the only one except the spur system in general use, consists in cutting out the old wood every second year, and supplying its place with wood of the previous season's growth.

You will thus see that the principal points to be attended to in the culture of the vine are:--1. To prune the plants so as to prevent them from forming too much wood, but not to cut too near the buds; 2. To keep the roots and collar of the plants, when forcing begins, at the same temperature, or nearly so, as the upper part of the stems; 3. To admit air to the roots as soon as all danger is over from frost; 4. To thin both the branches and grapes properly and in due time; 5. To keep the air of the house moist when the fruit is setting and swelling; and 6. To give the plants a proper season of rest.

_Pines_ are propagated by crowns, that is, the bunch of leaves on the upper part of the fruit; or suckers which form by the side of the old plant. These are potted in small pots in proportion to their size, in a soil composed of seven eighths of pure loam and one of silver sand; and plunged about two thirds of their depth into a bed of tan, at the heat of about 95° in the bed, and the usual heat of a forcing-house in the atmosphere, if grown in the vinery. Young plants are sometimes grown without pots in propagating-pits; from which they are transferred, after being repotted, to what are called succession pits; and, after remaining there a long time, they are either removed to the tan-pit in the vinery to fruit, or to fruiting-pits. I shall not attempt to give you directions for their culture during all these changes, which take up a great deal of time; Jamaica pines being two years before they are ready to cut, Providence pines about twenty or two and twenty months, and Queen pines sixteen or eighteen months. Your only chance of growing pines is, therefore, not to have them till they are put into fruiting-pots; these are plunged into the tan-pit in the vinery in February or March, when the forcing of the vines begins; and afterwards they will require no other care than watering them frequently, and keeping the atmosphere moist, to make the fruit swell. Pine-apples are sometimes grown without pots, in peat soil, through which pipes of hot water are carried so as to heat the earth to 95°, while the atmosphere is kept moist, and decayed leaves are laid on the surface and drawn up round the plants. In this way, Queen pines have been grown to the size of five or six pounds, and New Providence pines from twelve pounds to fifteen pounds.

When _peaches_ are forced in a vinery, the trees should be three or four years old before they are put into the house. The best kinds are, the Grosse Mignonne, the Royal George, the Bellegarde, and the Late Admirable; and, where only one kind is wanted, the Bellegarde is preferred, as it is not so liable to the mildew as the others. The best kinds of _nectarine_ for forcing are the Elruge and the Violette hâtive. If the forcing begins in December, the fruit will be ready in May. The leaves should be frequently syringed with water at the temperature of the house; and, in other respects, the culture is the same as for peaches in the open air, and the forcing the same as for vines. The greatest objection to growing peaches in a vinery is, that the shade thrown by the leaves of the vines prevents the proper colouring and flavouring of the fruit.

_Standard fruit trees_ should never be planted in a kitchen-garden, as from their drip and shade it is impossible to grow good culinary vegetables under them; while, on the other hand, the constant digging and movement of the soil required for culinary vegetables, make the roots of the trees descend so far that they get beyond the reach of the air, and can never produce good fruit. Dwarf standards are fruit trees grafted near the collar of the plants, and trained in various ways to form bushes rather than trees. Sometimes a hoop is placed inside, and the branches are trained into a cup-shape; at others, the branches are formed into a kind of umbrella; and, at others, they are trained into the shape of a distaff (_en quenouille_), or like a pyramid. All these and many other modes of training dwarf standards may be seen at the London Horticultural Society's Garden at Chiswick: but only pears, apples, and dwarf cherries are treated in this manner; and, though they are convenient to gather the fruit from, they are in so unnatural a state as to be subject to canker and other diseases, and seldom live long. Espalier trees are subject to the same objections, as they are in a still more unnatural state than dwarf standards. The hardy kernel and stone fruits are therefore best grown in an orchard, and I shall now say a few words on their treatment.

_Apples_ are the most useful of all fruits, and there are three distinct kinds, the dessert or eating apples, the kitchen or baking apples which fall or become soft in cooking, and the cider apples which are good for nothing but cider. Apple trees are generally grafted on crab stocks; and, when they are planted, the collar should be raised a little above the soil, as if it is buried the tree will very probably become cankered, or affected with the American blight. Canker is sometimes cured by cutting out the cankered part, and admitting air to the roots; and the insect called the American blight may be removed by washing the tree with a brush and soft soap and warm water, or by plastering it over with a mixture of stiff clay and water.

_Pear trees_ are very apt to send their roots down to a great depth, and then cease bearing; so that it is desirable to keep the roots near the surface by mulching with manure or dead leaves. The fruit is produced on spurs, and when pear trees are grown against a wall they are trained horizontally, with short projecting branches or spurs. Pear trees against a wall are very apt to bear their fruit in clusters, and to leave a great part of the tree barren; and this arises from their flowers having naturally very little pollen, and, where the flowers are exposed to great heat, the pollen drying up without fertilising the stigma. The best remedy is to syringe the branches occasionally, and to shade them when in blossom.

The _quince_ thrives best near water; as does the _medlar. Mulberry trees_ are best planted on a lawn, for the convenience of picking up the fruit clean from the grass; as it falls as soon as it is ripe. _Plums_ and _cherries_ require no particular care when grown as standards, except to be sparing in the use of the knife, as both trees, when wounded, are very apt to produce gum; and this, which is an unnatural exudation of the sap, similar to the bleeding of the vines, is very injurious to the trees.

The _almond_ is a kind of peach tree, with a leathery fruit instead of a juicy one, the almond being the kernel of the stone. The bitter almond abounds in Prussic acid; but this powerful poison scarcely exists in the kernel of the sweet variety. Almond trees are generally grafted on plum stocks; and they should be grown in a dry soil and a sheltered situation, as the branches are brittle and apt to be broken off by high winds. When almond seeds are sown, the sharp end should be pressed downwards; and the young plants should not be transplanted except when absolutely necessary, as they have very long tap-roots. When the almond is planted for ornament it should have a back-ground of evergreens, as its flowers appear before its leaves.

The _walnut_, being a spreading tree with large leaves, should only be planted where no injury will be sustained by a deep shade being cast upon the ground; but it must be observed that its leaves are disliked by all cattle, and are injurious to cows. In pruning it the tips of the branches should be taken off, to make them throw out fruit-bearing shoots.

_Sweet chestnuts_ are always propagated by seeds, and never grow well unless the soil contains a portion of sand. The wood is worthless when old. Both walnuts and chestnuts are generally planted in the park.

The fruit shrubs grown in gardens may be considered to include the _elder_, the _berberry_, and the _filbert_, though these are frequently called trees. The elder and the berberry will grow anywhere, and require no particular care in their culture; the filbert is only a variety of the common hazel, and both are generally grown on the borders of walks, where they are planted from five to ten feet apart, according as they are to be trained upright or spreading. As the fruit is produced on the young shoots, the bush should be kept open and trained in the cup fashion, in order that the main branches may throw out short young wood. Filberts are propagated by sowing the seeds; and hazel trees by suckers, which they throw up in abundance.

_Gooseberries_ are generally propagated by cuttings, which strike easily; and they should be grown in soil which is well drained, and well manured by a coating of rotten dung being laid upon it every third year. The bushes should be planted in rows eight or ten feet apart, the plants being about six feet from each other. They should be pruned twice a year; in the winter to remove the branches not likely to produce fruit, and early in summer to remove those shoots that are not likely to ripen. The fruit is produced partly on the old and partly on the young wood, and it should be thinned when gathered green for pies and puddings, by taking only a few from each bush, instead of gathering all that may be wanted from one.

_Currants_ are raised from cuttings generally about a foot long, all the buds from which are taken off, except five or six at the top; and the cutting is then firmly fixed in the soil about six inches deep. The currant bears chiefly on spurs of the old wood, so that these only are generally left in the winter pruning. The currant is very hardy, and will grow in any soil or situation, even under the drip of trees.

_Raspberries_ always bear on the young shoots, so that the art of pruning them consists in cutting out the old wood. They are propagated by suckers, and thrive best in a light rich soil, and an open situation.

The _cranberry_ is generally grown in moist soil or peat earth; but it may be grown in beds in the common garden like the strawberry. When cranberries are once planted they require no after care, except removing the runners when they extend too far.

Having now, I believe, told you a little, though I confess not much, of all the kinds of trees and shrubs usually grown in this country for their fruit, I have only to say a few words of strawberries and tart-rhubarb, and then I think I shall have given you all the information you will require for so small a garden as yours.

_Strawberries_ are rather difficult plants to give directions for, as they succeed apparently equally well with different kinds of treatment. It is certain, however, that they like a deep rich soil, well manured; and that, when a new strawberry bed is planted, the ground should be trenched at least two feet deep, and a good deal of rotten dung (the dung from an old hotbed is best) should be mixed with the soil. Some persons make fresh strawberry beds every year, and some every third year; but strawberry beds will continue to produce for ten or twelve years, if a thick coating of decayed leaves be put on the bed every winter, and their remains forked into the bed in spring. When a new bed is to be formed, the strongest runners should be selected from the old plants; and they may be planted in beds containing three rows each, eighteen inches apart, the plants being about twelve inches apart in the line. Alpine strawberries may be raised from seed, and will fruit the first year. The Pine is an excellent strawberry for flavour, but Keen's seedling is the best for general use. The Hautbois requires a great deal of manure, and, as the male and female flowers are on different plants, nearly one half the plants in a bed are unproductive. Strawberries grow very well on banks facing the south or south-east, or on little terraces supported by walls, but in these situations they must be regularly watered twice a day. Strawberry plants never produce good fruit unless they have abundance of leaves, as shade is essential to the fruit being juicy and of a good flavour. Most gardeners take off the runners in August or September, and plant them in nursing beds for the winter, transplanting them to their proper beds in March.

_Tart-rhubarb_ is propagated by seed or by division of the root, but the former method is generally considered the better. When beds of rhubarb are to be formed, the soil should be deeply trenched and richly manured, and the seed then sown in drills two feet apart for the scarlet rhubarb, and three feet apart for the larger kinds. When the plants come up they should be thinned out so as to leave the plants about the same distance apart as the rows are asunder. A few leaves may be gathered from each plant the second year, but it is generally considered to strengthen the plants if no leaves are gathered from them till the third year. Rhubarb may be forced in the open garden by putting pots over it, in the same manner as is done for sea-kale; or the plants may be taken up and potted, after which they may be placed in the kitchen near the fire and covered with matting or old carpet, being watered every day with warm water.