54 THE FLORIST. 



ORCHARD-HOUSES AND GLASS-CASES. 



That our climate of late years has altered, in some respects, every 

 one is aware: our summers have lately been deficient both in light 

 and heat ; our autumns, mild in the extreme (often wet as well) ; 

 producing a climate in which half-hardy plants have kept flowering 

 up to January, which has generally been many degrees warmer 

 than the old standard for mid-wdnter. The real winter has thus been 

 postponed, or driven forward as it w^ere, and has visited us in March 

 and April, sometimes in May; such seasons as the above, I need 

 scarcely remind my readers, have compelled growers of hardy fruit 

 to make use of various shifts, to compensate in some measure for 

 this untoward state of things ; for during late years, not only has a 

 crop of wall-fruit been an uncertainty, but in numerous instances 

 the trees themselves became attacked wdth gum, canker, or mildew ; 

 and have subsequently died through diseases originating from cli- 

 matic influences. 



What the ensuing season may turn out cannot, of course, be pre- 

 dicted : there is an old saying, " that hard winters bring fertile and 

 productive seasons ;" if such be true, we shall this year be safe, for 

 at the time I write there is frost and snow ; we have winter in 

 earnest, and sufficient, I should suppose, to satisfy the warmest ad- 

 mirers of the " good old times," w^hen Christmas brought wdth it frost 

 and snow, as surely as the dog-days do heat. 



Be this as it may, it shall not prevent me from going back to my 

 subject, for to be forewarned is to be forearmed ; and now that 

 glass is both cheap and plentiful, I cannot render those readers of 

 the Florist who are interested in the question better service than by 

 shortly noticing what has been done with our subject, by w^ay of se- 

 curing a crop of fruit. For such substitutes as canvas, netting, &c. 

 will not stand a comparison with the more dui^able, and in every 

 respect superior article, glass ; the only safe auxiliary which can be 

 made available to insure a crop of the finer kinds of w^all-fruits in 

 unfavourable seasons. 



To efiect this desirable result, various contrivances have, within 

 these few years, been brought under the notice of the public in the 

 shape of " cases, orchard-houses, glass w^alls," &c. ; each of w^hich 

 has been recommended as valuable assistants in unfavourable seasons. 

 It is these different structures I wdsh briefly to notice, by w^ay of 

 making them more generally known. 



In the first place, Mr. Bellenden Kerrs idea of merely covering 

 fruit-trees trained at a low angle by glass sashes, or frames, did not 

 answer the purpose ; there was nothing between the glass and the 

 ground to break the current of air which passed uninterruptedly 

 underneath, and produced an atmosphere much colder than the face 

 of a south wall. On this, Mr. Rivers's orchard- houses are a great 

 improvement, and may be described as a simple span-roofed house, 

 from 12 to 16 feet -wide, the roof-sashes resting on a plate running 

 the length of the house, beneath which, and forming the sides, are 



