THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 27 



no gTossness, and we have perfect command over roots as vv^ell as 

 branches. 



Then as to climate, an orehard-honse,"so constructed that the v^'inds 

 whistle through crevices and the sun heats the boarded sides to a degree 

 which alarms the novice, does not at first thought seem very promising. 

 But the majority of fruits most prized bj' us come from Syria, Persia, and 

 the south of Europe, where in spring hot days are followed by cold nights, 

 and the summer is fiercer, drier, and more prolonged than oui's. An 

 orchard-house constructed so as to afford to its inmates a free ventilation, 

 is the best j)osslble imitation of such climates as can be devised ; the trees 

 are protected from storms, the severity of long frosts is modified, the 

 summer is lengthened, and the daily heat increased ; and, what is of more 

 moment than all other advantages put together, we can secure the blooms 

 against those ravaging east winds, and morning frosts, and blowing nights 

 of rain and snow and dripping fog, by which our tender wall-fruits are so 

 teiTibly denuded of their blossoms, that in nine cases out of ten wall- 

 fruit culture proves more plague than profit. The most striking pecu- 

 liarity of our climate is the fickleness of its spring. Yines, peaches, 

 apricots, and figs will stand almost any amount of frost, if the air is at 

 the same time dry and the trees at rest. In the orchard-house you can 

 make sure of this ; out of doors it is not your affair, but an aftair of the 

 elements. But in spring, when the increasing sun heat on walls sets 

 peaches moving, in accordance with their constitutional habit of early 

 blooming, they open their buds and risk it. If March comes in like a 

 lion, the proprietor of the trees pays the penalty of their precocity — the 

 east winds nip them in the bloom, and the embryo fruit submits to ex- 

 tinction. In the orchard-house, on the other hand, they may bloom at 

 wiU ; by the turn of a button you shut out east wind, driving-snow, 

 sleet, rain, fog, and all other atmospheric enemies ; and by another turn 

 of a button you can let in a side di'aught from the south or west, and 

 soften it by hanging a breadth of woollen net over the ventilator, and 

 there you have your Eastern climate, and see fruit set by dozens just as 

 on open walls, and among standard trees they are falling at the same or 

 even at a more rapid rate. 



We have enlarged on these two points in order to show that though 

 the subject is one to be dealt with practically, it nevertheless opens up 

 many an interesting point for the student of theory in horticulture. To 

 vindicate either scheme itself, or the author of it, is not now necessary ; 

 orchard-houses are rising by himdreds all over the country, and are found 

 useful in the warm climate of Devonshire and Cornwall, as well as on the 

 bleak slopes of the Highlands ; and Avhere the principles on which success 

 depends are intelligibly followed by the cultivators, failures are the 

 exception and success the rule, which is more than can be said of any 

 other system of fruit-culture, not excepting that of apples in Hereford and 

 Devon, cherries in Kent, or grapes in the south of France. 



But failures have occurred, and will continue to occur ; many a man 

 has expended money on an orchard-house which he had better have kept 

 in his pocket ; but this may also be said of eveiy other branch of horti- 

 culture. How many of those who grow roses, strawberries, asparagus, or 

 even " cabbages, are competent to bring out the full excellences of the 

 several subjects ? Are not failures even in potatoes, peas, and mignonette 

 as frequent as mistakes at the Stock Exchajige, and miscalculations of 



