164 THE FLORIST. 



the length of it ; I find I can build it for three hundred pounds. I will 

 fill it with Apricot trees, a few Peach trees, and the best sorts of Plums, 

 in a bearing state, and in six years I will have my money back." Now, 

 I would ask, can those who advocate glass walls do as much with them ? 

 I very much doubt it. 



What labour would be required to manage five hundred yards run 

 of glass walls ? Those who have tried them will, of course, be able to 

 answer. If all the fruit trees in this garden were in glass walls, they 

 would require all the labour I have to manage them ; but, as they are, 

 a few weeks' nailing fi-om one man, with what I do myself, completes 

 the whole. Will, then, I ask, the quality of the fi-uit gro-vvn in glass 

 walls pay for the additional labour and expense ? I doubt it. 



On four of the six last seasons I have had to thin all my crops of 

 wall firuit very much : some kinds to the extent of three -fourths, and 

 the other two seasons I had plenty of fi'uit set for a crop ; so that, had all 

 these trees been in glass walls, I could not have left more fruit on them 

 with \\dsdom than I did ; and this brings me to my second assertion — 

 that fruit from open walls is of as good quality as that fi-om glass walls. 

 As the latter are not in extensive use, we have as yet no fair means of 

 testing this. If Mr. Ewing, or any other person, should ripen, say one 

 dozen, very fine fi-uits, and should exhibit these, say at one of the 

 meetings of the Horticultural Society in Regent Street, and should be 

 awarded a medal, I am not prepared to admit that as conclusive 

 evidence that fruit in general from glass walls is of superior quality to 

 that growTi on brick walls . But when Mr. Ewing can produce in the 

 second week in August fifty or one hundred score of Apricots, or in the 

 second week of September fifty or one hundred score of Peaches fi-om 

 his glass walls, which will bring a higher market price than the same 

 number of fruit gathered at the same time from the open wall, we can 

 then easily decide which are of superior quality. 



Fruit is affected by all the circumstances which affect the wood and 

 leaves ; if, therefore, I can show that wood under glass, without 

 artificial heat, is not even so well ripened as that on open walls, I 

 think we may fairly conclude that the fruit from that wood is not of 

 better quality than that fi'om the open walls. 



Trees or plants cannot be cultivated in the absence of the freest access 

 to air in motion. The more rapid the motion, within certain limits, the 

 higher the health of plants, and vice versa. This is the very foundation 

 of good gardening, and it is precisely this which is unattainable in glass 

 walls. This is the exact opposite of a natural condition, and plants 

 demand all the proximities to natural conditions which are to be 

 secured by art. In Nature they breathe freely. Direct, constant, and 

 most unrestrained communication with air, perpetually striking and 

 then quitting them, is as necessary to them as to animals. 



I mention that the air in glass walls and orchard houses is not 

 always in that state of motion which is essential to the healthy growth 

 of plants. How different with trees on open walls ! They are always 

 experiencing a change of air, night as well as day. I ask the readers of 

 the Florist if any of them ever knew of, we will say a Vinery, which 

 for twenty successive years has borne good crops of superior Grapes 



