IT is the opinion of some, that the production of Apples and Pears in the United Kingdom has ceased to be a matter of much importance, now that the Americans can pour these fruits into our markets and shops so speedily and in such enlarged quantities. Fruit is now sent on to us some seven or eight thousand miles across the Rocky Mountains, and three thousand miles by sea, in good quality and condition, in a comparatively few days; and that certainly may be ranked among the facts that are stranger than ever fiction anticipated. Our French neighbours also cultivate these fruits to make up the deficiency of our home produce. It is well that these sources can be looked to for a supply of such wholesome fruits, which in the case of Apples can be purchased at a rate that enables the frugal peasant or artisan to enjoy the wholesome supplement of tarts and puddings. The question, however, arises, Ought we to be so dependent on foreign sources for a full supply of these fruits 1 This, like every other question, has doubtless two sides to be looked at; but our object at present is not to discuss it in the abstract.

Our conviction is, however, that our home production might be much more satisfactory than it at present is, even in spite of many adverse circumstances.

Some writers have assumed and tried to prove that the climate of this country has changed so much for the worse that Apple crops are not now what they formerly were. This we believe to be an assumption that has no foundation either in statistics or anything else, and is repudiated by the recognised fact that drainage and high cultivation have had rather a beneficial influence on our climate. Be that as it may, we have no more doubt that many districts in the United Kingdom could be made much more productive of these fruits without entrenching on lands remunerative in other ways, than we have of our own existence. The question may be asked, By what means'? Of course, to begin with, by planting more trees. This may be met with the assertion that there never were so many trees raised and planted as there are in these times - a statement that may be true. But is it not near the truth that much of the planting might as well be left undone, and many of the trees might just as well be burned, for any share they have in increasing the supply of fruit?

We must of course endeavour to give a reason for this last assumption, as it may be termed. In the first place, we have never yet had to do with Apple and Pear trees in any district, without having the fact that the supply of fruits in five years out of six has been borne by a comparatively few sorts very forcibly illustrated. This observation is not by any means singular to any cultivator; and we believe if it were more carefully considered, and only those productive varieties planted all but exclusively, the bulk of fruit produced in a very great number of localities would be increased fiftyfold. As an instance of this fact, we now practise in one of the very worst spots that could be chosen for hardy-fruit culture - i.e., a low damp valley close to a river, with a heavy soil on a clayey subsoil, and an average rainfall of fifty inches, and where spring frosts are very prevalent. Yet only twice in ten years has the yield of Apples not been sufficient for the supply of one of the largest establishments for three months, and from comparatively few trees - under what we consider adverse circumstances - in the vegetable-garden alone.

We are now so well acquainted with the few varieties and trees that are productive, that we could venture to point out those that are likely to be fruitful the following season and the varieties could be more than counted on our fingers. If every tree in the gardens were of these varieties, there would be supply enough for eight or nine months of the year. The blossom produced by other varieties is most encouraging, but their crop is almost always nil. Is it therefore not reasonable to expect, that if those varieties that bear thus were largely planted in this and similar districts, the produce would be much increased with the self-same labour in culture? The same rule we have noticed to apply more or less to other districts. The indiscriminate planting of varieties not suited to localities has been found out by market-growers to be a great mistake, and they are now acting on the principle of selection.

Another practice, and, considering its results, one that has been adhered to with an amount of tenacity that is remarkable, is that of planting Apples and Pears by the sides of walks, in what are termed cross-borders, in kitchen-gardens, and even dotting them about in vegetable quarters - the spaces of ground between trees in these positions being frequently occupied with biennial and other flowering plants, and sometimes with Strawberries and vegetable crops. These borders, if devoted to flowers, are rarely properly manured, and are deeply worked with a spade annually among the plants, and close up to, if not over, the roots of the trees. If devoted to vegetables, they are, on the other hand, heavily manured with ordinary dung, deeply dug into the soil. To escape mutilation, the roots of the trees, with a sort of self-preserving instinct, proceed to find peace and comfort in too often an unsuitable and canker-breeding subsoil. In the one case the roots are starved, and in the other too grossly fed; and the respective results are stunted growth and poverty-stricken produce in the one case, and in the other too gross a growth of unfruitful wood, to be annually and ruthlessly cut away with the pruning-knife. Of these two evils it would be difficult to say which is the worst or most unreasonable.

Trees in such positions as the one named must of necessity be kept in very restricted limits as to size, or injury to the things among which they are planted would be greater than it really is and even with all the restriction practised, the one crop is most injurious to the other. To make matters bearable, the pinching and pruning are carried to an injurious excess every year, leaving as many knife-wounds as make it a wonder that decrepitude, canker, and decay are not more fatal than they are. The pruning of such trees, after the fashion of the present day, is an evil; and it is to be feared that in not a few cases it is resorted to to permit of the other evil of making room for growing every conceivable variety in a given space. Root-pruning every two or three years is perhaps the more reasonable course to pursue but if trees are to be grown with a vigour capable of bearing a full crop of decent fruit, it is a process that can only be carried to a certain extent, and that not sufficient to do away, under the circumstances, with the murderous pruning which leaves trees more conspicuous for their number of knife-wounds than for anything else.

This miniature-tree system, mixed up with other crops, is, generally speaking, not satisfactory. It is a sore evil to other kitchen-garden crops, and leads to so much cutting and restriction, that it never will admit of a satisfactory supply of fruit, even if the selection of sorts be ever so suited to the locality. In so important a horticultural matter as this, it is strange that we adhere so tenaciously to the mixing of fruits with other crops: and the evil is most flagrant in what are termed the best of gardens; and hence the faithfulness with which it has been copied. For those with only one small piece of ground, there is some excuse if they desire a few varieties. But even in their case their trees would do better located by themselves.

There is no serious reason that we know of why there is so much of this mixing up of standard fruit-trees with kitchen-garden produce, instead of putting them by themselves, where they and the ground can be much more specially treated in accordance with their want?. By doing so, many telling advantages are gained for both departments. The evils of digging heavy dressings of rank manure, and of digging among the roots of the trees, find no excuse, and can be entirely avoided. Neither need the trees be starved or injured by being improperly fed when they want extra nourishment. No spade or fork should be thrust among the roots of trees to dig in manure and mutilate the roots. A firm surface, subject to no more tillage than is necessary for a clean surface, having the necessary manure spread on its surface, inducing the roots to keep near it and be fed with the beneficial elements of, instead of coming in contact with, the manure - this way of managing the soil produces a more moderate growth, and altogether that state of health without grossness which is so desirable.

Then the trees, to be worth the name, can have room and liberty to develop without injury to other crops and with benefit to themselves. The pruning is reduced to a minimum sufficient to admit of light and air to the various parts of each tree, instead of the stag's-horn style of pruning off almost every inch of wood made annually. The compromise between nature and art mutually working to each other's hands results in the building up of trees that frequently do more to fill fruit-rooms with fine fruit than when they are managed on the other principle which we are contrasting.

Besides, trees in an orchard give an amount of shelter to each other that is an important factor in securing comparative safety from the blighting influence of winds, which do so much damage to the blossom. By observing the3e few cardinal points more generally - the proper selection of sorts, the orchard system of planting, natural root-culture, and less pruning - much more and better fruit would be produced in a great many districts. The culture would be simplified and the labour lessened. On the other hand, the vegetable-garden would also profit by such an arrangement to no inconsiderable extent. This, coupled with the planting of many a nook of ground now not much better than waste, would very much increase our home supplies, as compared to what is grown in gardens, making us more independent of foreign supplies of at least the commonest, though not the least useful, of these fruits, which it is desirable to make still more plentiful, cheap, and popular among our toiling millions.