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be as well to say that Frogmore is a sort of compensating garden, in lieu 

 of two or three other royal gardens, which, being formerly each under 

 a separate head, were very expensive ; and as each did not know what 

 the other was growing, the royal household was never properly supplied. 

 Frogmore was bought and enclosed, and a most perfect system of supply 

 carried out, so that the immense establishment is always provided with 

 the rarest and most costly fruits and vegetables. The extent covered by 

 them is somewhere about 34 acres, and the wall presents a surface of 

 upwards of two miles ; the iron trellis for Pears and Apples being 

 upwards of a mile long, while the houses for forcing fruit are of immense 

 length — that they must needs be so will be gathered from the fact, that 

 between two and three tons of Grapes, and £00 dozens of Apricots, and 

 the same of Peaches and Nectarines, have been supplied from these 

 gardens, in the course of one year, for the royal household — and I have 

 no doubt that the royal " Jeameses" and " Abigails" do not come in 

 for the worst, or the least share of them ; — that Grapes are to be found 

 on the royal table nearly every week in the year, and that French 

 Beans and Cucumbers are always in abundance. Although it is not 

 celebrated as a flower-garden, Mr. Ingram has been successful in raising 

 some excellent Geraniums and other flowers, and takes a great deal of 

 interest in the whole subject of hybridizing. 



I was conducted through the fruit-houses by Mr. Powell, under 

 whose management the hardy fruit department is, and who is well 

 known to the readers of the Florist by his valuable contributions to its 

 pages on fruit culture ; and the great object is to save both time and 

 labour. The plan of growing the Pines in pits, planted out, is an 

 immense saving of trouble, and so effectively is it done that only 

 eighteen months elapse from the time the sucker is taken off the old 

 plant till the delicious and fragrant Pine is ready for table. Of this the 

 queen of fruits, all the more celebrated kinds — Cayennes, Providence, 

 Queens, Sic. — were in growth, and looking remarkably healthy, the 

 handsomest fruit being, probably, the smooth Cayenne. Why this 

 plan, saving so much expense and trouble, is not more generally 

 adopted, is a puzzle, save that we English are very slow to adopt 

 improvements, however desirable. In sad contrast with this was the 

 Pinery of a friend I saw the other day, 1 have no doubt costing him a 

 mint of money, but nothing in it worth looking at, and no prospect of 

 any fruit. The early Grapes were of course over, and late ones were in 

 a state of forwardness ; — these, which are West's St. Peter's, will begin 

 to fruit about January, and will supply the royal table until nearly the 

 end of March, about which time the early ones will be coming on, and 

 thus the succession is kept up. In the same way, the Peaches and 

 Nectarines were now drawing to a close in the houses and were coming 

 in on the walls ; but before these are used, there are some trees which 

 simply have a glass case before them, without any heat, and these will 

 just supply the break where the house fruit ends and the wall fruit 

 begins. All the trees which had been forced had had the top lights 

 taken off, and were receiving the full benefit of sun and air for the 

 ripening of the wood. I noticed, too, that the young shoots are allowed 

 to grow on the wall-trees, and were just being cut and laid in when I 



