As the object in view in planting this garden is rather to produce the fruits most useful in a family, than to grow a great variety of sorts, the first point is to consider what kinds are best adapted for the kitchen. Of these apples are the most wholesome for children, and are not only useful for pies and puddings, but excellent roasted, or boiled down with honey, so as to make a kind of sweetmeat, resembling that called by the French resine, to eat instead of butter with bread. Pears, when of the melting kinds, are both very agreeable and very wholesome to eat raw; but they are seldom used in England for any purposes of cookery except stewing; and this dish, when made palatable, is generally too rich for children. Of stone fruits, damsons are the most wholesome, and most easily preserved; and morello and Kentish are the best cherries for cooking. Gooseberries, raspberries, and red currants, with a few black ones, are also extremely useful for all purposes of cookery, particularly preserving. One of the most useful apples for the kitchen is the Hawthornden, which comes in early, bears abundantly, and falls (softens) well in boiling; but the fruit does not keep, and, in some soils, the tree dies off at an early age. The Keswick codlin is also a good and early kitchen apple.

The Ribston pippin is an excellent fruit, either for the kitchen or dessert; but the tree is not quite so hardy or so good a bearer as either the Bedfordshire foundling (a very large apple), or the king of the pippins. The Brabant bellefleur and Wormsley pippin are also very excellent apples. The best keeping apples for winter use are the northern greening and the French crab, the latter of which will keep two years. For pears, the best for the table are the beurre de Ranz, the glout morceau, and Eyewood, all excellent bearers, and all keep well. The earliest of the fine-flavoured pears is the jargonelle; but it will not keep longer than a week or ten days. Marie Louise is next in ripening to the jargonelle, but it also will not keep long. The best pear for keeping is the Easter beurre. The best cherries for the kitchen are the Kentish or Flemish, for the early crops, on account of their juiciness, and the smallness of their stones; and, in the autumn, the morello, for making cherry brandy and preserving. The wild, or black cherry, which ripens between the kinds mentioned, is a very rich fruit for pies or paddings; but the stones ere large in proportion to the pulp, and it continues in season but a very short time.

Of plums, the green gage, the early and late Orleans, and the Shropshire or prune damson, are the best The wine sour and mirabelle are also frequently used for preserving; and Gisborne's plum is an extraordinary bearer. Of grapes, the most productive, in the open air, are the esperione and the white muscadine; the best for wine-making is the black cluster. Of peaches, the best bearers are the grosse mignonne, the Royal George, and the Bellegarde; the last a most excellent sort. The best nectarine is the Elruge, and the best apricot for the table is the Moorpark; though the Breda, which is a very abundant bearer, is most useful in the kitchen, as it not only makes a delicious preserve when ripe, but excellent tarts when green. The best bearing fig is the large blue or purple fig, which ripens well in the open air, and early; but the brown Brunswick is also much recommended. The best gooseberries for preserving green, and making green gooseberry wine, or British champagne, are the rumbullion and the white Dutch. The Warrington, the whitesmith, and the early rough red are great bearers, and afford excellent fruit for the table, and for preserving when ripe: the roaring lion is the best bearer of the large aorta.

The common, or Dutch, red currant is the only one used for pies and puddings, and is the best for preserving. The black currant is used for making a kind of jam, called rob, which is thought good for sore throats; the black Naples produces the finest fruit The best white currant is the white Dutch. The red Antwerp raspberry is the best, both for the table and preserving; and the white Antwerp has the finest flavour for the dessert The only strawberry that is suitable for preserving is Keen's seedling, and it is also the best and most regular bearer. The red alpine is high-flavoured, and continues in bearing many months, but the fruit is small. The scarlets are the kinds mostly used for flavouring ices, and the variety called the Duke of Kent's scarlet is esteemed the best The old pine is the finest flavoured of all the strawberries, but it is a very uncertain bearer.