362 THE GARDENER. [Aug. 



vigorously used every dry morning, and, especially in the afternoon, 

 Avlien tlie house is shut up with sun-heat. 



Syringing should be thus continued until the fruit shows signs of 

 ripening. The Peach is subject to red-spider, and syringing keeps 

 that pest at bay, and it also likes moisture about its foliage. The 

 morning syringing should always be early, so that rapid evaporation 

 does not take place as ventilation is increased. Clear soot-water — 

 that is, water in which dry fresh soot has been mixed and allowed to 

 stand and become clear — may be applied occasionally with the engine 

 or syringe to advantage. The ammonia from the soot gives a dark 

 healthy hue to the foliage. 



SETTING THE FRUIT. 



I have never found the least difficulty in getting Peaches to set 

 freely, even when they have been started in ]!!^ovember. The only 

 means I have ever adopted to make a good set of fruit doubly sure, is 

 to slightly increase the temperature immediately the blooms are fully 

 expanded, to give rather more air, and to go over the blossoms at mid- 

 day with a camel's-hair brush, and impregnate them, taking pollen 

 from those sorts, such as Yiolette Hative, which produce it more freely 

 than others, and applying it to such as Noblesse, which produce it 

 more sparingly. 



I do not think that setting depends so much on a very dry atmos- 

 phere as on a circulation of warm air, which causes the pollen to come 

 to proper maturity. Some growers advise that the trees be syringed 

 with tepid water when in full bloom, and practise this to set their 

 Peach crop successfully. I have never adopted this, and never found it 

 necessary, but it is practised by successful early forcers of the Peach. 

 There can be no difficulty in accepting what has been said in its 

 favour, inasmuch as it can be easily understood how the particles of 

 pollen can be separated and carried down the pistil by means of water 

 as well as air. It is, in as far as it can be aided, a mechanical process. 

 I consider the chief thing is to produce a strong healthy bloom and 

 fructifying organs, by cautious forcing, and then the setting of the 

 fruit is almost a certainty. 



W A T E K I N G. 



It is difficult to lay down directions as to the time that Peaches 

 require to be watered at the roots, so much depends on circumstances, 

 such as the nature of the soil, &c. &c. In the case of trees having their 

 roots in both inside and outside borders, it is never necessary in early 

 forcing to water the outside border. The inside border should be 

 thoroughly moistened to the bottom when the house is put in order 



