country, does not yield as well as some other kinds at Ham Common, and this is also the case with Prince of Wales.

No lesson in fruit growing is more important to a beginner than that which will impress upon him the necessity of ascertaining the varieties that flourish in his particular district. Some varieties appear to do well or fairly in all parts of the country; while many, though wonderful croppers in some districts (in relation to climate) or on certain classes of soil, are unsatisfactory in others.

Mr. Walker had a tremendous crop of apples last year, but only a passable one of plums, and (like all other large growers) a poor one of pears. The sight of farmyard manure literally heaped up around the apple trees called forth the explanation that where fruit is found to have set well, Mr. Walker, to use his own expression, rushes on the manure. This, again, is a very important hint.

One advantage of an exposed situation, Mr. Walker believes, is comparative immunity from aphides, which are most common where there is shelter. He suffers so little from these pests that he does not spray his trees. As to attacks of caterpillars, he relies on grease-banding. In about the middle of October greased paper bands are placed around the trunks of all apple trees to catch the females of the Winter Moth and other species. In a week or ten days the coating of grease is renewed on the same band. The grease used is Horne's patent fruit-tree dressing. A great many moths are caught in this way. As for the caterpillars of species of moths the females of which can fly, the trees are left to take their chance, but do not suffer greatly in this plantation. It is worth while to notice that several varieties of moths are caught, but hardly any caterpillars; also that the great majority of the moths caught are winged insects. Mr. Walker explains that he bands. apple trees only, because, he says, caterpillars develop on the leaf, and plums and pears have longer fruit stems than apples, so that the caterpillars cannot reach the fruit. He notices that the apples most attacked are those of the Codlin family, the young leaves and fruit of which frequently touch each other. Mr. Walker is afraid of possible danger from arsenical spraying, especially where there are gooseberries under the fruit trees.

Nearly all the apples are on the paradise' stock and of bush form, a comparatively small number being on the crab. Mr.

1 This stock is raised from the French apple-tree named Paradis, a variety of dwarf habit, rooting close to the surface of the soil. The strain of English broad-leaved paradise stock is now preferred to strains raised in France, as it is longer-lived and more vigorous.

Walker favours the plan of planting apples on the paradise and the crab alternately, so that the latter, which are the longerlived, may stand alone when they fairly cover the ground. But even better, from one point of view, is the plan of growing plums alternately with apples or pears, as the different classes of fruit take different constituents from the soil. In part of the orchard there is a very fine plantation of pears on the pear stock and plums growing alternately, the rows being 21 ft. apart, and the trees 10 ft. apart in the rows. By the time that the plums become old and begin to die off, the pears will sufficiently cover the ground. In this plantation there is an object-lesson to growers warning them not to plant fruit trees where oaks have stood, both pears and plums on a small patch, after oaks, being dwarfed and sickly. Near by is a plantation of bush pears on the quince stock, 13 ft. by 10 ft. apart.

In one great lot of apples in the bush form on paradise. stock, planted eleven years previous to last autumn, 10 ft. by 9 ft. apart, it has become necessary to take out every other tree-a lamentable but necessary sacrifice of trees now in full profit. Similarly, in the case of a well-grown and perfectly healthy lot of four hundred Cox's Orange Pippins (there are two hundred in another place), planted six years previous to last autumn, when three years from the budding, 13 ft. by 10 ft. apart, every other tree is now being reduced in size by trimming, and in a few years will have to be dug up. Again, a magnificent lot of four hundred Duchess of Oldenburg apples on the paradise stock, planted five years ago, when three years from the budding, 13 ft. by 10 ft. apart, are already too thick, and would have been better planted 13 ft. by 13 ft.

With respect to the relative advantages of dwarf and standard trees, Mr. Walker prefers apples on the paradise stock and pears on the quince; but these require to be liberally treated to give good results, and for farmers he would recommend apples on the crab, 24 ft. apart each way, with a plum tree between each pair of apples in the rows, and bush fruit as a bottom

crop.

For his own instruction, Mr. Walker has a large trial plot, upon which he grows over a hundred varieties of apples, to test their value and their suitability to his land.

As to the distances of plums, a lot of four hundred of the Czar variety, 16 ft. by 10 ft. apart, and now about ten years old from the time of planting, are quite thick enough. It is a question of somewhat difficult calculation to decide whether fruit trees should be planted closely or comparatively widely. In

the former case there will be some years of extra production before half the trees have to be thrown away. But where bottom fruit is grown, the balance of advantage appears to lie in planting standard apples on the crab or pears on the pear stock, 24 ft. to 30 ft. apart, with dwarf apples or pears or plums at half distances, so that no uprooting will be necessary for about twenty years, after which the standards will cover the ground. Or if dwarf trees are grown, with bushes and strawberries or flowers between them for a time, experience at Ham Common indicates that 12 ft. to 15 ft. apart, according to variety, will not be too great a width for a permanency. These remarks apply to fruit growing on a considerable scale. In small gardens, trees to be trimmed and root-pruned may be grown much more thickly. With respect to pruning, Mr. Walker thins his trees sufficiently to let sunshine and air to all parts of them, but otherwise is sparing in the use of the knife. The important hot-house division of the Ham Green enterprise is left for notice hereafter.

As a good example of the old fruit plantations of the Thames Valley, that held by Mr. Poupart, of Twickenham, was visited. The nursery is about 160 acres in extent, between 50 and 60 acres being devoted to fruit, and the rest to vegetables and flowers. Plums are most extensively grown, but also considerable quantities of apples, and some early pears. Gooseberries are grown as bottom fruit in the orchards, but no currants. Rhubarb is largely cultivated, and a good deal is forced early in the year, the roots being simply laid in soil in dark and heated sheds, cheaply constructed of wood. Mr. Poupart cultivates a new variety of rhubarb, Dawes's Champion, of which he has a high opinion. Some of the apple and pear trees are said to be a hundred years old; but a good many young trees have been planted to supersede old and inferior trees, and the orchards are well cultivated, and otherwise well managed. Only early pears are grown, as Mr. Poupart is of opinion that late varieties do not pay now that consumers insist upon having the large and showy, but comparatively flavourless, Californian pears, which are imported in considerable quantities. Formerly, he said, English growers used to keep late pears extensively in sheds to ripen; but now the practice is not remunerative. The rows of fruit trees (mixed plums, apples, and pears) are 16 ft. to 18 ft. apart, and the trees in the rows about 12 ft. from each other. A few cherries and a fair quantity of outdoor wall-fruit are grown, but no strawberries. Mr. Poupart sells his own produce in Covent Garden, and thus is able to make the most of it. But he does not agree with growers who think that the sales

men's usual charge of 10 per cent. on the returns is too high. On the contrary, he believes that it hardly pays, allowing for market charges and the cost of providing packages. Old orchards in the Twickenham district let at 81. to 8l. 10s. an acre, and land sells up to 1,000l. an acre, or even more in some places. The soil throughout the district is mainly a good and deep loam over gravel.

On a neighbouring plantation the fruit crops were found similar to those just noticed, with the addition of between 30 and 40 acres of strawberries; and in another market garden at Isleworth there are over 100 acres of mixed fruit trees and bushes. In this parish some raspberries, as well as currants, were found growing under fruit trees.

Many other orchards were viewed in passing through Teddington, Hampton, Feltham, and on the road from Feltham to Hounslow, as well as towards Bedfont, where there is one very extensive grower of fruit.

At Whitton, near Hounslow, plantations of apples, plums, and pears were noticed, while cherries are largely grown at Heston. The top rent of planted orchards at Whitton, according to a good authority, is 8l., while the rent of a farm adjoining a nursery has been reduced from 31. to 21.

Southam, an important strawberry district, was passed through on the way to Cranford, where also, and in neighbouring parishes, strawberries, raspberries, and some cherries are grown. Mr. Neighbour, of Cranford, for example, has seven acres of strawberries, chiefly Paxtons, with a few Royal Sovereigns and British Queens. There are many much more extensive growers in the neighbourhood, but no better growers, the fruit seen on the occasion of my visit being magnificent. Mr. Neighbour, who has 45 acres of land devoted to fruit and flowers, grows also plums, damsons, apples, gooseberries, and

currants.

Mr. Evans is another Cranford fruit grower who was visited, and, like Mr. Neighbour, he has already been noticed as a grower of flowers. He grows apples and pears chiefly as top fruit, with some plums (mostly Prince of Wales) and Bigarreau cherries; but, in growing fewer plums than apples or pears, Mr. Evans is exceptional in his district. For bottom fruit he produces raspberries, black and red currants, and gooseberries. In consequence of attacks of the mite, the black currant crop has failed for three years. It was surprising to learn that fruit plantations in Cranford, twelve miles from Covent Garden, let in some cases for rents as high as 10l. to 121. an acre, or from 25 to 50 per cent. more than the usual

rents of orchards in parishes very much more populous and nearer to London.

A very interesting visit was made to Mr. Fanning, of Heston, the next parish to Cranford. He has 40 acres of fruit, mainly in the former parish, but partly in the latter; also a number of hot-houses. Apples, pears, plums, gooseberries, red currants, raspberries, and strawberries are grown. Apple trees are one rod apart each way, some plums being half a rod, and some wider apart, while there are two rows of bushes between the rows of trees, and other bushes in each tree row. As an indication of the varieties of the different classes of fruit most commonly grown in the district, I asked Mr. Fanning to give me the names of the leading sorts in his plantations. In response he said that the principal apples were Golden Noble, Jubilee, Yellow Ingestrie, Worcester Pearmain, Cox's Orange Pippin, Rosemary Russet, Julian, Manx Codlin, Keswick Codlin, Wellington, Lord Suffield, and Nonesuch. The plums are Victoria, Gisborne, Prince of Wales, Rivers's Prolific, Magnum Bonum, and Pershore. As in most other metropolitan market gardens, the pear principally grown is the early Hessel (or Hazel). The raspberry grown is the Semper Fidelis, not large enough for dessert, but good for jam. Incidentally I learned that raspberries sold at 381. per ton in some cases last season for the jam factories. Mr. Fanning grows a few cherries, which others produce extensively in his district. The orchards and vegetable fields suffered extremely from drought last season, and the old apple and pear trees looked as if they had been scorched. In one apple orchard from which 400 bushels of fruit are usually obtained, and one season 700 bushels were grown, only 40 bushels were gathered in 1898. Apples and pears were not more than half their usual size. Moreover, Mr. Fanning said that the trees would take two or three years to recover their vigour for fruiting. The subsoil of gravel lies from 6 in. to 18 in. below the surface. One of the most interesting crops was half an acre of Early Evesham tomatoes in the open, which produced an abundant crop of well-ripened fruit, worth 3d. to 4d. per pound wholesale. Some Chemin Rouge tomatoes were grown in pots under glass till the fruit was set, and then put out of doors; but Mr. Fanning prefers the more hardy Early Evesham for an outdoor crop. Peaches and nectarines are grown under glass. Cherries had been picked when my visit to Heston was made; but I learned that the crop was small last season.

Mr. Thomas Wild, of Sipson (a hamlet of Harmondsworth), occupies about 300 acres of land, half of which is in fruit, con