JUNE. 165 



without any artificial heat ever having been used ? I think there are 

 very few gardeners who have seen such a thing. 



On the other hand, there is scarcely a reader of the Florist who is 

 old enough to remember, but knows of many Vineries where artificial 

 heat has been used which have borne good crops of superior Grapes for 

 twenty — even for forty or fifty years. Now what causes the difference ? 

 Simply this ; in the one case the wood has been always well ripened, 

 and in the other never. All gardeners know what a difference there is 

 in the wood of Vines which has ripened without artificial heat, and 

 that which has been ripened with it. Now this difference in the 

 ripening of wood is not so much owing to a greater amount of hght, nor 

 is it altogether due to artificial heat, though that does assist it ; but it is 

 chiefly due to the more rapid motion of the air. 



I will now take two Peach houses, in which Httle or no artificial heat 

 has been employed ; we \^'ill suppose they are similar, and have been 

 treated alike in every respect, and that they ripen their firuit about the 

 1st of August. We will now suppose the glass is left; on one of the 

 houses, and that it is all removed from the other for a month or six 

 weeks, but not longer ; the latter is exposed to unrestrained communi- 

 cation to air, the former has only its usual ventilation. Now I ask 

 the advocates of glass walls which of these two houses will contain the 

 best ripened wood; which will be most likely to have a healthy and 

 finely developed bloom the following spring, and which the greater 

 certainty of a crop ? The same holds good wdth regard to the wood of 

 trees ripened in glass walls, and that on brick ones ; the latter, if kept 

 sufficiently thin, \^'ill be much better ripened, in consequence of firee 

 exposure to air. 



The great evil in all glass structures is the imperfect means of 

 ventilation. From my own observations through life I am led to 

 believe that nine-tenths of the failures we witness in forcing-houses 

 arise from want of proper ventilation. 



This article having already reached a much greater length than I 

 had intended, I vAW not multiply instances to prove that which almost 

 evexy person admits ; and that is, the advantage of air in motion to all 

 plants. 



There is one fact of which I wish to remind the advocates of orchard 

 houses and glass walls ; and that is, that one-half, at least, of all the 

 Apricots, Pears, and Plums that reach the country markets is produced 

 by cottagers and farmers fi-om trees which grow against their houses 

 and other buildings. I know that in this neighbourhood considerably 

 more than one-half is brought by cottagers and farmers. There are 

 many cottagers who make their rent of the fruit which grows on the 

 tree or trees against their houses ; and, remember, some of them get very 

 superior fruit. I am acquainted with a cottager who last year got 

 three shillings and sixpence and four shillings a score for Apricots in 

 Knaresborough INIarket — not to go further fi-om here. Even when most 

 abundant, in 1852, they sold then at eighteen pence the score. 



Are the millions, then, to give up fruit growing if they cannot get 

 orchard houses and glass walls ? By no means ; rather let us all 

 encourage its production ; and when we get a firuit tree against every 



