1873] PEACH CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 3L3 



more fire-heat should be applied than is necessary to keep the tem- 

 perature from falling at any time below 4.V at night. In mild 

 weather it will necessarily range higher without fire-heat. After the 

 house has been shut up a fortnight, firing in a regular way should 

 commence, and the night temperature be kept at 50°, allowing it to 

 sink a few degrees lower on very cold nights ; with a day temperature 

 10° higher with sun. If a higher temperature be maintained at first, 

 the trees are subject to start their wood-buds before the blossom-buds, 

 and the blossom under such circumstances is sure to be weak and likely 

 to drop off before it expands. By the time the blossoms are open the 

 night temperature should be gradually raised to 55^, with a corre- 

 sponding rise by day with sun. After the fruit are set raise the tem- 

 perature by degrees to G0° at night, and with sun it may safely run 

 to 70° or 75° by day, according to the intensity of the sunshine. 

 Until the fruit are stoned the night temperature should not exceed 

 this. After they are stoned it may be raised to 65°, and to 80° with 

 sun-heat by day. In the case of early forcing, of which I am now 

 treating, I do not recommend a higher temperature for Peaches than 

 the last named — not that there is any fear of the fruit dropping off 

 with a higher temperature after the stoning process is past, but I have 

 tilways found that the moderate rate of forcing produced finer Peaches 

 and wood than are attainable with more rapid forcing. Of course 

 very much depends on the state of the external atmosphere, as every 

 experienced forcer knows. With mild weather, the temperature I 

 have named may be exceeded by a few degrees with impunity, even 

 with advantage. On the other hand, in time of very severe frost, 

 -when hard firing is necessary to keep up the proper temperature, it is 

 %visest to let the heat decline a few degrees. After a day of bright 

 sunshine, which more or less heats up all surfaces, the house can be 

 shut up with a higher temperature, and the heat husbanded, so that 

 very moderate firing keeps the heat up in the fore part of the night 

 higher than I have named, and under such circumstances there is no 

 objection to this. 



Of course when forcing is commenced later in the season, and the 

 trees are more easily excited, and produce their blossom and young 

 wood more strongly under the influence of increased light, the tem- 

 perature may range a few degrees higher with safety. For instance, 

 a house started in December, for which 50° with fire-heat would be 

 -sufficient, might, if not started till far on in February with more 

 natural warmth and sun by day, be started at 55° with fire-heat after 

 the trees are moving naturally. In bright weather, early shutting up 

 with sun-heat should always be preferred to hard firing without sun. 



D. T. 



