200 THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. [September, 



tion, that they can be set either facing the south or the north, as the one aspect 

 or the other may be found most suitable to the plants grown beneath them. 

 For propagating purposes, either outdoors or in the propagating house, they are 

 perfectly adapted. Indeed, they are efiScieut for all the purposes for •which a 

 common glass hand-light may be used, with the additional merit of being more 

 convenient to handle, warmer, and more readily ventilated, ventilation being 

 afforded by sliding the glass aside as much as may be req[uired. — T. M. 



VALUE OF ORCHARD-HOUSE PRODUCE. 



=>OTWITHSTANDING!- all that has been said and written in favour of 

 Orchard-houses, they have not become popular with cultivators in general, 

 and though good fruit is sometimes grown by this method, yet in the 

 majority of cases it is inferior to what is met with from trained trees. A 

 larger variety can, no doubt, be had from a small space by the pot system, and it 

 may be interesting to an Amateur with plenty of time on hand to spend a few hours 

 occasionally in his Orchard-house, where he can note the various habits of his fruit- 

 trees, watch their progress, compare the flowers of one kind of fruit with those of 

 another, and be able to point out the features which distinguish them, which is, 

 however, by no means a simple task, even when one's powers of discrimination are 

 strong. But to the individual who desires to have plenty of fine fruit at a small 

 cost, and with as little labour and attention as possible, I say Orchard-houses 

 cannot be recommended, — I mean, under the ordinary system of growing dwarf 

 trees in pots, and giving them the same attention as is accorded to a greenhouse 

 plant. Ornament is one thing, but utility combined with economy is another. It 

 is an argument against its being a profitable system, that market growers do not 

 adopt it. They cannot afford to have a number of starvelings in pots, requiring 

 daily watering and syringing, besides fumigating, clearing, airing, &c. In the best 

 managed structures, where the highest value can be put on the produce, 

 the returns, I fear, are not equivalent to the outgoings ; and the fine crops of 

 fruits we so often hear of are, I fancy, oftener seen in print than realised in 

 practice — pits and other structures being sometimes used as auxiliaries to keep 

 the Orchard-house well filled, and the barren trees being exchanged for others in 

 full bearing. I have known proprietors refer to these well-filled houses, and 

 demand a reason why they cannot have their houses full of fruit, never suspect- 

 ing for a moment that many fruitless trees have been carried out, and their 

 places filled from the " reserves." 



In a small Orchard-house here (70 ft. long and 18 ft. wide) we have had a 

 quantity of good fruit, which has been of great service in helping the dessert ; 

 but if I had wanted the same quantity for myself, I could have bought it at less 

 cost by going to market. To the keen pomologist the pleasure of growing the 

 fruit, noting the habits of the various kinds, &c. (as already mentioned), ought 

 to be remuneration in the fullest sense ; but proprietors who employ gardeners 

 to supply their tables with fruits of finest quality and at least expense, will be 



