184 



RIVERS' NURSERIES. 



of what are called "Madeira nuts" at home 

 and Walnuts here — even when only 6 or 8 feet 

 high, is cultivated here, and would be an ac- 

 quisition in American fruit gardens. 



Thousands of young fruit trees, in the finest 

 health, occupied the nursery quarters — the 

 establishment enjoying a higher reputation than 

 any other in England for fruit trees, and prob- 

 ably doing ten times as much business in this 

 department as any other British nursery. — 

 The American trade is very large, and great 

 quantities of both stocks and approved sorts 

 of fruits as well as Koses, were despatched to 

 the United States last season. Mr. Rivers' 

 mode of forcing dwarf pyramidal pear trees is 

 already well known to our readers, by his ar- 

 ticles in a previous volume. Its two great 

 features are shortening the roots every year or 

 every two years, suppljiug an abundance of 

 food to them by suitable manures, and stopping 

 the growth of terminal shoots twice in the 

 growing season. There can be no doubt that 

 by this mode the finest pears may be grown 

 in soils, and climates too, unfavorable for stand- 

 ard trees ; and that, by this means of forming 

 a highly productive tree, which occupies only 

 a couple of yards square of space, a handsome 

 and valuable collection of fine fruits may be 

 grown in the smallest gardens, viz : those of 

 cities and the suburbs of towns. Small pear 

 trees on c|uince stocks, 4 to 6 feet high, ready 

 formed as pyramids, and with fruit buds upon 

 them, may now be had from the Sawbridge- 

 •worth nurseries. We hope this mode of culti- 

 vating pears for sale will be largely practiced 

 by our growers at home. The Angers quince 

 stock which is preferred here to all others as 

 a bottom for pears, is easily distinguished from 

 the common variety by the comaprative ab- 

 sence of wooly down on the under side of the 

 foliage, as well as the rounder form of the leaf 

 itself. It is a remarkably free-grower, and 

 (which is a great merit) it is almost as easily 

 propagated from cuttings as the common cur- 



rant — while the ordinary quince, as is well 

 known, is very shy of striking root in this 

 manner. The Portugal quince, Mr. R. con- 

 siders the poorest and least suitable of all as a 

 stock for the pear. 



In no feature of his establishment is the 

 spirit of progress more marked than in the nu- 

 merous cheap glass structures with which it 

 abounds. Every American is struck in Eng- 

 land with the exceedingly solid and substantial 

 manner in which almost every building, wheth- 

 er it be a castle or a conservatory, is erected 

 and, as matter of course, with the great sum 

 which such buildings cost. The consequence 

 has been, that forcing houses, for vines and 

 other fruit trees, or glass structures for orna- 

 mental purposes, have been almost wholly be- 

 yond the reach of all but the wealthy class. 

 Mr. Rivers has taken quite the opposite 

 course, and looking upon the end to be obtain- 

 ed as the great point to be kept in view, has 

 shown that it may be satisfactorily attained in 

 so cheap a manner as to place the luxury of 

 glass within the reach of every one who can 

 spare one or two hundred dollars. We saw 

 dozens of long glazed structures, the roofs of 

 which were fixed, but wholly glazed, with the 

 front, ends and rear, being only a slight frame 

 of wood like a board fence, all most simply 

 and ingeniously ventilated and warmed — and 

 all at a cost not more than a fifth or an eighth 

 of that usually expended on such buildings in 

 England — while the fruits and plants produc- 

 ed in them were of very superior growth. In 

 many cases the wood is not even planed, and 

 all, even the sash-bars (or rather roof-strips 

 which hold the glass) are sawn of the exact 

 size necessary at the saw-mill, so that a house 

 of this kind may be built by any person 

 who understands the use of a common hand- 

 saw and hammer. These houses are all warm- 

 ed by a simple brick stove, placed in the cen- 

 tre of the interior — a variation of the Armott 

 stove, invented by Mr. Rivers — which not 



