November 24, 1863. j 



JOUKNAL OF HOETICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



405 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



NOVEMBER 24—30, 1863. 



GreenfincheB flock. 

 Song Thrush sings again. 

 Common Flat-body Moth. 

 Clematis boetica floTrers. 

 Ambrosinus died, 1657. Bot. 

 Advent Sx'NDay, 

 St. Andrett, 



w^ „,„ Clock 



*I°™» after 

 -*S^- > Sun. 



13 



o 



15 

 16 

 17 

 18 

 19 



m. s. 



13 11 



12 54 



12 35 



12 16 



11 56 



11 35 



11 14 



Day of 

 Year. 



328 

 329 

 330 

 331 

 332 

 333 

 334 



From observations taken near London during the last thirty-six years, the average day temperature of the week is 47.2°, and its night 

 temperature 34.1". The greatest heat was 60', on the 28th, 1828 ; and the lowest cold, 14°, on the 30th, 1856. The greatest fall of ram was 

 1.21 inch. 



OECHAHD-HOUSES AJSB PEACH-HOUSES. 



HAVE . occasionally 

 observed in articles 

 written by your con- 

 tributors, describing 

 tbeir visits to great 

 gardens and good 

 gardeners, that the 

 latter have spoken 

 disparagingly of orchard-houses 

 as compared with Peach-houses, 

 and it naay not generally be 

 known that they are to a cer- 

 tain extent quite correct in their 

 opinion. 'The truth is that where the produce of a fruit 

 garden is alone thought of, and not the pleasure of cul- 

 tivating fruit, the orchajd-house is out of place unless 

 it be in situations where such fruits as Cherries, Pears, 

 and Plums do not succeed on walls. In such places 

 houses for them erected in the kitchen garden would be 

 found, of great use. In a first-class well-appointed garden, 

 with Peach-houses and fine walls, the owner of which is 

 either an absentee or fully engaged in political or mer- 

 cantile life, knowing nothing and caring nothing for fruit- 

 cultnre if his table is well supplied, an orchard-house 

 5s not wanted, and a gardener would not act with judg- 

 ment in recommending one. But if a nobleman or gen- 

 tleman interested in fruit-culture, and wishing for one 

 "of these most agreeable structures for a promenade, as 

 well as the pleasure of seeing fruit in all its stages of 

 growth, asked his gardener's advice as to the propriety 

 of building one, he would, even if he had numerous 

 Peach-houses, act weU to promote it. The late (but one) 

 Lord Braybrooke was the only nobleman in my experi- 

 ence who felt much interest in orchard-house culture. 

 He had a large house built at Audley End somewhere 

 about the year 18.52-3, and I remember hearing from his 

 own lips the great pleasure he had derived from it in his 

 old age and declining health, for he seldom passed a day 

 without a promenade in his orchard-house. I can fully 

 understand this, for during the stormy weather we have 

 had lately I have found my daily walk in a house 100 feet 

 long, the thermometer at 60°, always most agreeable ; 

 for the fniit-buds of Peaches and Apricots are already 

 commencing to swell, and one seems to picture the trees 

 covered with their gay flowers. 



With respect to the produce given by a Peach-house, 

 the trees trained to trellises in the usual way, and an 

 orchard-house with full-grown trees in 15 and 18-inch 

 pots, I have the past season had a good opportunity of 

 making some calculation. It may possibly interest some 

 of your readers. 



From one of my large houses 100 feet long and about 

 24 feet wide, I gathered in the past season as nearly as I 

 could calculate about twenty bushels of Peaches, Nec- 

 tarines, and Apricots from two hundred trees, some 

 planted in the ground, but the majority in pots (some 

 in 15 and 18-inch pots). I found on measuring the fruit 

 Ne. 139.— VcL. v., New 8KR»Be. 



of fair-siaed Peaches that twenty-five would fill a haJf- 

 peck measure heaped in the usual way of measuring 

 fruit ; and that the large trees, now from ten to twelve 

 years old and upwards, produced from four to five dozen 

 — in round numbers a peck each. This would have 

 given, if all the trees had been of the same age and 

 growth, the large aggregate of fifty bushels ; but many 

 of the trees are young, and some gave only from one to 

 two dozen each. 



To amuse myself, I imagined my span-roofed house 

 divided and formed into a lean-to house 200 feet long, 

 carrying a trellis under the glass 10 feet wide, allowing 

 a little space at bottom and top which the trees would 

 not probably cover. This would give 2000 square feet 

 of trellis. It has, I think, been stated somewhere tha;t 

 a square foot of wall to which a Peach tree is trained 

 should carry twelve full-sized Peaches. This is a mis- 

 take : six full-sized Peaches are as many as can be grown 

 on a square foot either of trellis or wall. To ascertain 

 this without any calculation, a square foot should be 

 formed with four pieces of deal nailed together, and then 

 placed on a Peach tree full of fruit nailed to a wall. 

 Six fuU-sized Peaches will be found to occupy the square 

 foot, leaving only a sufiicient space between each for 

 full exposure to sun and air. We can thus easily cal- 

 culate the number of Peaches (when the crop is good 

 and regular), that a lean-to Peach-house 20Ct feet long, 

 with the trees trained to a trellis should give — viz., 

 12,000 Peaches, amounting, when measured 50 to a peck, 

 to 60 bushels. 



We must now take a span-roofed orchard-house 100 feet 

 long and 24 feet wide and calculate its produce. In a 

 house of these dimensions 180 full-sized Peach trees 

 may be cultivated, and in a large house like this trees on 

 stems from 2 to 3 feet in height are the most eligible. 

 If well cultivated they may, in the course of two or three 

 years, be transferred to their permanent large-sized pots, 

 18 inches in diameter. They soon form fruitful round- 

 headed trees, and bear large crops. When in full bear- 

 ing each tree should give from four to five dozen of 

 full-sized Peaches — for the sake of round numbers we 

 wiU say fifty. One hundred and eighty trees will thtts 

 give forty-five btishels, or fifteen bushels less than -a 

 trellised house with the same quantity of glass. I have 

 purposely made this low calculation. The advantages 

 of this treUised house are the regular exposure of every 

 fruit to the sun, and consequently a greater increase in 

 colour, making the fruit better adapted for market ; so 

 that where they are grown for profit, or merely to supply 

 large establishments, the trellised house is the most 

 advantageous : therefore a good gardener who well un- 

 derstands the training and management of Peach trees 

 is quite right in adhering to the system. Much labour 

 and much skill are required in the management of a 

 Peach-house, and there is but little pleasure in it for the 

 amateur — a promenade under a thickly covered trellis, 

 with the fruit only to be seen imperfectly from below^ 

 is not agreeable. . ' 



We must now consider the advantages of the orchaj-d- 

 No. 791.— Vol. XXX., Old Sedibs' 



