COUNTRY LIFE
Orchard Methods The other day I walked through an orchard in which it seemed that every tree was laden with fruit. The shy apples were as many as the more robustious kinds. Cox's rivalled Bramley's Seedlings. Now in certain districts it is a bad year for apples ; and the reasons given by its possessor for this exception are at least interesting. The trees were planted and brought up by a distinguished man of science. After care- ful study he came to the conviction that pruning was a sort of murder or maiming. Give a tree a good start, perhaps with the aid of prelimi- nary shaping, and thereafter leave it to its own sweet will. The technical Press was furious at the heresy, and doubtless pruning, even hard, ruthless pruning, has its uses ; but what it may add in quality it subtracts in yield. It may be confessed that this season sharp con- trasts are much in evidence. Apples are good, for example, in South- West Scotland, in beautiful Galloway.
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