28 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



dishes required for a dinner ? Of coui'sc there will always be those who 

 will have theu- sad talc to tell of disappointment in the cultm-e of fruit- 

 trees in pots ; and in order that such of our readers as may be bitten with 

 the prevailing mania for orchard-houses may escape every cause for dis- 

 content, we will here just enumerate a few of the leading points on which 

 the routine of management must be based. 



Given an orchard-house : one of the first conditions of success is an 

 abundant ventilation; for peaches, nectarines, pears, etc., are all hardy in 

 a certain manner, and require protection only from the harshest severities 

 of the weather and from sudden changes of atmospheric conditions. 

 Early in -winter the trees must be got to rest, and kept at rest ; and to 

 effect this a proper ventilation is all that is required. From the day they 

 fii'st break in spring till they go to rest again in autumn, they should have 

 constant attention ; they must, in fact, he cultivated ; and cultivation does 

 not consist in merely sticking a plant in earth, and thence leaving it to 

 live or die as may be determined by the elements. Some people think it 

 enough to build a house, and buy the trees and put them in their places. 

 They are left to suffer by drought, and at long intervals are drenched Avith 

 water ; and the consequence is, that instead of heavy crops of fruit, there ' 

 are heavy crops of red spider. All through the summer the SATinge should 

 be used amongst them so as to wash every leaf, and keep the trees in the 

 most active state of growth, so that fruit-spurs shall be formed in time to 

 be well ripened before the heat of the sim declines in autumn. 



To promote the formation of fi'uit-spurs we must enlarge the sphere of 

 that process of checking which is accomplished by confining the roots in 

 pots, by regularly pincliing back the shoots to prevent an undue develop- 

 ment of wood, and increase the habit of fruitiulncss. Even where the 

 pots stand the soil should l)c of a loose and rich character, so that the roots 

 which penetrate through the drainage shall be enabled to take up a large 

 amount of nourishment to compensate for the confinement in a pot, and to 

 swell the fruit to its proper size before ripening. If the roots are allowed 

 to work through into a rich border, why not plant the tree in the border 

 at once, may be asked? Simply because, when the season's growth is 

 completed, the pot can be turned up and all those feeding roots cut off and 

 a third aid given to the principle of checking grossness without injniy to 

 the tree, and Avith an increased habit of fertility. Tlicn, further to com- 

 pensate for the drain on its resources which the ripening of a number of 

 fruits must prove, and also for the confinement of those roots in a pot, a 

 portion of the soil must, at the end of October, be taken out all round 

 next the pot and be replaced ydi\\ a rich compost of turf and manure, and 

 a top-dressing of manure only added above that, and two good doses of 

 water given between dressing and the middle of November, and the 

 trees then allowed to get diy to winter safely. Thus we feed liberally, 

 and in a manner which in the open gromid would be the ruin of nine- 

 tenths of oiir orchards and fruit-walls, by making forest-trees of those whose 

 timber we have no desire to possess. But the other parts of the system 

 preclude any undue dcA'elopment of timber in an orchard-house, and the 

 greater part of this extra nourishment goes to the perfecting of heavy crops 

 of fruit. Even with such a routine failures may happen through potting 

 trees loosely, instead of ramming the soil in as hard as if for a bam floor ; 

 through neglecting to destroy aphis, red spider, and other pests by the 

 usual means ; by shifting trees in February and March instead of Novem- 



