26 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE, 



practice the method of culture propounded by Mr. Rivers ; and when 

 these had, by undeniable successes, \dndicated the orchard-house from 

 the senseless aspersions cast upon it, many a former sceptic gave in his 

 adhesion to the plan, the loudest of the opponents became silent, and at 

 last, to use the favourite phrase of the Thunderer, the orchard-house 

 became a " great fact." 



Just as a Wardian case is a greenhouse in miniature, so an orchard- 

 house is also a greenhouse of the very best kind of construction, specially 

 planned to accommodate fruit-trees in pots and borders. If anything is 

 to be said as to theory and practice in connection with orchard-houses, 

 it is this, that their success is the direct consequence of the practice they 

 involve, being founded on the true theory of fruit-cultui'e, in which of 

 course it is a primary postulate that the trees subjected to cultxu'c should 

 be placed in such cu'cumstanccs, as to climate, soil, etc., as are most 

 favourable to the production of fruit-buds and the matui'ation of the fruit. 

 But it will be said that it is not natural for fruit-trees to grow in pots ; in 

 the open ground they send out their roots far and wide, and make wood 

 as well as leaves and fruit, all of which are inimical to their confinement 

 in the narrow limits of 11 -inch and 13-inch pots. The best answer to 

 this tremendous objection is, that it is not natiu'al for any plant, whether 

 a peach-tree or a lily of the valley, to grow in a pot ; and if to gain a 

 certain end we make herbaceous plants, shrubs, and bulbs submit to con- 

 finement in pots, why should fruit-trees suffer by similar treatment ? It 

 all turns upon how the thing is done, and here we are pointed to success or 

 failure, according as the practice accords with the theory of the sixbject 

 dealt with. In a state of wild growth, fruit-bearing trees are also more 

 or less timber-forming trees ; when we take them in hand, and submit them 

 to culture for the sake of their fruit, and their fruit only, we have to 

 check, by artificial means, yet nevertheless in accordance with natural 

 principles, the tendency to form wood, and increase the tendency to the 

 production of fruit. If you want a geranium or calceolaria to bloom 

 early, how do you treat it ? You cease to shift it ; as it fills its pot with 

 roots, it shortly becomes pot-bound, and forthwith thi'OAVs up trusses in- 

 stead of making a further succession of wood shoots. The check to its 

 roots prevents it increasing much more in size, and it at once acquii-es a 

 flowering habit. Select a large branch on an old pear-tree, and use it as 

 a beam for a swing for the children, and let them cut the bark through 

 by the fretting of the rope, and you will have a hea\y crop of fruit from 

 that branch next season, provided, before it was so ill-used, it had well- 

 ripened its numerous fruit-spiu's. The injury to the bark checked the 

 vigoui- of the branch, and, instead of using what few energies were left in 

 the formation of wood shoots, it brings to maturity and ripens ten days 

 earlier than the rest of the tree the fruit which set after blossoming. The 

 branch may die or recover ; any way it -will have taught you this lesson, 

 that by checking the tendency to make wood, we increase the tendency to 

 the formation of flowers and the ripening of seeds, which last tendency is 

 the one which moat delights us in the cultiu'e of fruit-trees. In ciilti- 

 vating fruit-trees in pots, we hit the happy mediiun of insuring liberal 

 crops of fruit, and just as much wood as may be necessary for gradually 

 increasing the size of the tree, and the number of fruit-beariiig spiu's and 

 branches, and this without any violation to its natui'e ; in fact, with a 

 promotion of its health and vigour in every respect, except that there is 



