Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

9 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

Horticultural Topics.

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

Horticultural Topics. FRUIT CULTURE. The subject of fruit culture is one which has not has not received sufficient attention in Carmarthenshire. The growth of fruit is generally a haphazard affair in this country. A farmer has a few trees. They are any sort and they grow anyhow" and because magnificent results are not attained in this happy go lucky style, he votes fruit growing a humbug. Probably, if the farmer went in for any sort of cattle, bred them anyhow, and allowed them to take care of themselves he would be inclined to vote cattle rearing a failure. But he gets the best strains of recognised breeds, takes every care in their selection, and feeds them on the best food obtainable, and then he finds that cattle-rear ing pays very well. So it is with fruit trees. The majority of the fruit trees one sees about the country are valuable in so far as they might serve for firewood. Some of them never—or hardly eyer-fruit for reasons, which will be referred to later. In many cases when they do fruit, the produce is of little value. The apples come into use in the autumn, and they are brought to market at a time when there is a glut and the result is that they are sold at something like a penny a pound. Con- sidering the inferior quality of the fruit, they are often dear at the price. People talk of the good prices which the American apples will fetch, as compared with English apples. Of course, good American apples fetch better prices than inferior English fruit but the Welsh or English fruit grower who has a quantity of "Cox's Orange Pippin" for sale in the Spring, can count on getting three- pence of fourpence a pound for them. Good home grown fruit heads the market. Many labourers and small farmers hesitate to go in for a few fruit trees because of the "J "I "I supposed high prices. A good well known tree which will fruit next year can be had from any respectable seedsman and florist for Is 6d. Young trees can be had much cheaper but those recommended are four- year-olds which if planted in the month of November will bear a crop next summer. For the sake of the few pence per head differ ence, it is hardly worth while buying trees which will have to be kept two or three years before they fruit. The trees when procured should be planted as soon as ever convenient, every day they are kept out of the ground is a loss. To receive them a nicely prepared spot should be selected. A hole should be dug and the ground well manured. When planting care should be taken to spread the roots out flat-like a carpet almost. If any encouragement is given to roots to dive down deep into the eatrh, the energies of the tree will be devoted to wood forming instead of fruit forming. It cannot be too often im- pressed upon beginners that the roots which make fruit are those which grow along the surface. To insure good fruiting qualities, some gardeners place a stone right under the centre of the roots, so that the tap-rot can not penetrate the sub soil. Others condemn this practice, and say that with proper plant- ing in a clay soil, the precaution is at least uncalled for. Root-pruning as it is called is founded on the facts narrated above. When a tree fruits badly, gardeners remove the earth around it, and care fully cut away the roots which sink deep into the earth. Trees which are doing badly are sometimes raised, their roots properly trimmed, and they are planted elsewhere. Root-pruning and trans- planting, however, are dangerous processes in the hands of unskilled persons. Prevention is better than cure. It is easier to train a tree to grow properly in the first place. When the tree is properly planted, a good mulch of stable manure may be placed on the ground over the roots. This protects the delicate young roots during the winter. The vicinity of the manure too has probably a tendency to draw the roots to the surface. A judicious top-dressing of bone meal is an excellent tonic for fruit trees which are established. Beside its actual value as a fertiliser, these top dressings encourage the trees to seek nourishment from the surface. There is habit in the vegetable world as well as in the animal world. Excellent app'es for dessert purposes may be found in Cox's Orange Pippin (fit for use October to February), Blenheim Orange (from November to February), and Ribston Pippin (October to May). A sack of these is worth a cart load of inferior apples which glut the market in September. Good cooking apples are Alfriston (November to April), Haw- thornden (September to January), and Peas- goods Nonsuch (September to November). Pears are not sufficiently grown in Car- marthenshire. There is a popular delusion that pears are as difficult to grow as peaches. It is a delusion. Except in remarkably bleak and exposed situations, the pear is as easy of cultivation as the apple. The fruit is always sure to command a remunerative price. Ex- cellent varieties are Hessle (September and October), Jargonelle (October), Winter Nelis (December to January), and Easter Beurre (December to March). The last named melts in the mouth like butter, and is a valuable late fruit. The Jargonelle is highly esteemed as a delicious early pear it is said to have been introduced under the Roman Empire the variety to have been preserved by graft- ing ever since. Plums are also suitable -for culture in South Wales. Good varieties will be found in Victoria (kitchen or dessert ready for use in September) Czar kitchen, August) Greengage (dessert, August) White BuPace (desert, October). The disadvantage of plums is that they must be disposed of almost as quickly as gathered. There are no varie- ties which will keep until Spring. It may sound ridiculously superfluous to gardeners to say so but it is nevertheless unknown to many beginners that the best. apples and pears are apparently unfit to eat when gathered in the Autumn. Store them, however, in a dry place until the proper time and you will wish you had ten times As many of them. When a gardener has a fair stock of fruit trees he may try his hand at grafting. A slip of apple grafted on the Paradise stock or the crab comes true and so do pears grafted on the quince. These are the orthodox methods recommended by professional gar- deners. Mr H. Jones Davies has at Glyn- eiddan a large number of pear trees grafted on the thorn hedges it would be interest- ing to know the exact result of such an ex- periment as compared with the yields from the trees grafted in the regulation manner. Beginners are often tempted to buy cheap job lots of trees of which a dozen may be had at times for the price of two or three at a well-known establishment or its agencies. Such lots are generally "clearances to make room they are often dragged up with much damage to the roots and they have seldom been transplanted in the recognised way to make good sturdy bushes. They are not cheap often at the price offered. A good tree at a reasonable price will be successful and profitable if given fair treatment. People who buy wondrously cheap lots of bulbs can tell sad tales too. Fruit can, of course, be raised from seed. The time required to get a seedling apple- tree to fruit is, we believe, 15 years and we know of cases in which longer was re- quired. No one can tell what a seedling will turn out to be. If you graft a slip of JW. '.o: "Ribstoll Pippin," you will in a few years have another fruiting tree of the variety. If you take seeds, however, from that variety and raise seedlings, it is a million to one against having anything like the parent. The chances are that you will have a. crab and in any case the seedling if of any use is hard- ly likely to be an improvement on a known variety. New varieties are raised from the seeds of course, but they are carefully selec- ted and cross-fertilised by skilled scientists; and then we only hear of an occasional new variety worth growing, cut of the thousands of experiments made yearly. The chance of raising a good apple from seed by hazard is about equal to the chance of finding a pearl in a common oyster saloon.

Lord Rosebery as an Author.

o How is it.

,Llandilo Urban District Council.

THAT ONE-INCH PIPE AGAIN.

What my Doctor said.

New Waul en of Llandovery.…

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Lord Rosebery as an Author.