In My Garden In plantin g new fruit trees—pears, plums and
cherries, not Iess than apples, it is necessary to follow such advice as is admirably boiled down in a little leaflet republished by the John banes Horticultural Institution (it, Mostyn Road, S.W. 19). It is, for example, well to remember that "no cultivated variety of sweet cherry will set fruits with its own pollen "—so it is soundly asserted. On the other hand, as I have found to my advantage, the morello cherry sets a fine crop every year without any external help. Pears have strange preferences in the way of companions, for some are almost wholly self-sterile, and the one variety which is found to be prolific in isolation is "Fertility Improved." In plums it is a happy fact that Victoria, which is the most popular of plums, bears a full crop from its own pollen, and gardeners who grow the early greengage, which is one of the best but most sterile, will be wise to give it a Victoria as neighbour, though there is a long list of other plums that will serve this purpose, Monarch or Pershore for ex- ample. No fruit-grower should neglect John Ines leaflet No. 4, unless he has its equivalent, say, from the Royal Horticultural Society.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
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