466 



JOURNAL OP HOETICULTXJBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEK. [ Decembar 16, 1863. 



mildew and curl, formerly in abundance, never appeared, 

 OKcept on a young tree of the Eoyal Charlotte. 



It is all very well to say that fine Peaches can be produced 

 regularly on the open wall, by taking the precaution of 

 covering when in bloom in spring. This may be applicable 

 enough to some localities. We are bound to believe that it 

 is from the advocates of the system, and the facts they 

 adduce, and there is, perhaps, not much harm in their 

 playing a tune on their own fiddle, as long as they do not 

 insist on every person dancing to it. Assuredly it would 

 not be the best mode in the great majority of districts in 

 Scotland, nor in a good many in England, where I have 

 known good gardeners give up the open-air culture of the 

 Peach in despau-. and succeed well with glass coverings. I 

 have myself had Peaches and Apricots frosted when they 

 were about the size of pigeon's eggs. 



I cannot help thinking that where Peaches under glass in 

 September and October are found so deficient in colour and 

 flavour, as compared with those from the walls, there must 

 be some disadvantage in the construction of the Peach 

 screens, or some deficiency in their management. There 

 are very few, if any, localities, one would suppose, where the 

 Peach is found more healthy on the walls than under glass. 

 This granted, we have one great fandamental condition for 

 the production of good fruits. The want of colour and 

 flavour has been the objection raised against glass protection. 

 Upon what conditions do these important qualities depend ? 

 In order to answer this question satisfactorily, it is not neces- 

 sary to enter into physiological arguments which have led 

 to the conclusion which practice has attested — namely, that 

 the flavour and colour of fruit in general, and, perhaps. 

 Peaches in particiJar, depend on fuU exposure to light, a 

 free circulation of dry air, with a lessened amount of moisture 

 in the soil, and, in consequence, a higher ground tempe- 

 rature. These, too, are the means which produce the best 

 ripened wood and fruit-buds — results which are unquestion- 

 ably more generaUy obtained under glass than on the open 

 walls. It is, therefore, somewhat singular if the same 

 result in the ripening of the fruit, depending on the same 

 agencies, should be wanting under glass. My own ex- 

 perience of the two systems has been unmistakeably in 

 favour of glass coverings. I have seen under glass Royal 

 George and Barrington Peaches, of the darkest red, and far 

 larger and better-flavoured than any that could be pro- 

 duced in the same garden without glass. These were 

 ripened in houses constructed of large panes of the clearest 

 sheet glass, where the whole front and top Ughts can be 

 thrown so completely open as to keep every leaf and fruit in 

 the house under a constant circulation of air. Probably the 

 fruit loses to an injurious extent the rays of the sun by the 

 intervention of glass ; but this loss, it may be allowed, is 

 more than counterbalanced by protection from night dews, 

 heavy rains, wet and cooled borders, all of which must be 

 prejudicial to high flavour. Therefore, I cannot help think- 

 ing that in by far the majority of localities there must be 

 something amiss in the construction of the glass protection, 

 or in the management of it, if in-door Peaches in September 

 and October are not superior to the same varieties on the 

 open walls at that season, when they are subject to the 

 chilling and drenching influences of the heavy dews and 

 riins wliich so often prevail. 



If it can be maintained that from the obsti-uction of the 

 rays of light by the clearest glass. Peaches on a back wall, 

 or on a trellis a couple of feet i'rom the glass, are inferior to 

 those grown without any such obstruction, what is to be 

 said of those grown as dwarf bushes, set in rows along the 

 floor of a flat-roofed orchard-house? Reasoning from the 

 same premises surely they must be very inferior. Yet we 

 are led to believe that they of the bush are often fine in 

 flavour ; that Apples and Plums, &c., are even better than 

 those of foreign growth. If this be so, the flavour in their 

 case must depend upon other circumstances, which cannot 

 be secured without glass, as well as upon light. TUl lately 

 I had an idea that Apricots grown under glass were always 

 inferior in flavour to those on the open wall, but under the 

 influence of properly-constnicted and ventilated houses I am 

 now convinced that such is not the case ; and I know of an 

 employer who this year told his gardener who had sent 

 Apricots to table from a covered wall, that he might say he 

 never knew what a properly-flavoured Apricot was before. 



But gi-anting, as I am quite willing to do, that when 

 Peaches can be ripened on the open wall under the influences 

 of a bright and dry autumn, they ai'e a degree or two more 

 highly coloured and flavoured than under glass, I am not 

 at the same time wOling to forego the advantages which 

 glass affords in wet and ungeniaJ seasons, which are as 

 much the rule as the exception. Were light the only agent 

 which affected the flavour of fruits and the health of plants, 

 the case would be widely different ; but all who have expe- 

 rience in this matter are perfectly well aware that a soil 

 drenched and cooled with rain is inimical to the acquisition of 

 the proper flavour in all fruits, to say nothing of the fruit 

 and foliage being bathed for days and nights vrith cold 

 dews and rains. To be able to prevent such a state of 

 things must be allowed by the opponents of glass to very 

 nearly, if not quite, make up for the rays of light that are 

 held back. In fact, taking our fickle climate into consider- 

 ation, there are so many advantages to be enumerated 

 which are secured by protection, that its very slight disad- 

 vantages may safely be put up with ; and those who contend 

 that ah its advantages and none of its disadvantages are 

 secured by simply covering with fiigi domo in spring, must 

 surely have a very one-sided view of the climate of the 

 United Kingdom. 



In all considerations of this sort the expense is always 

 considered by all concerned; but even in this important 

 point, if the expenses of the respective systems were to be 

 carefully calculated, I feel persuaded that when extended 

 over a period of years there would not be much to show in 

 favour of covering with frigi domo or strong canvass. The 

 erection and heating of glass can now be done so cheaply 

 that it is astonishing how large an amount of such work 

 can be done for moderate sums, and I am labouring under 

 very wrong impressions, if nine out of every ten gardeners 

 would not prefer the glass to any other mode of protection. 



D. Thomson. 



GEOWING CHEYSAI^THEMUMS WITH A 

 SINGLE FLOWER ON EACH STEM. 



In replying to the query of " T." respecting the culture 

 of the Chrysanthemums exhibited at the Floral Committee, 

 South Kensington, November 10th, it will be necessary to 

 state that those plants were grown for a special object — viz., 

 that of producing one flower of large dimensions. The 

 method employed was a decided success, but one we should 

 not recommend to be so strictly pursued again, and for this 

 reason ; each plant might have been grown to produce three 

 or four large flowers, whereas one only was allowed to be 

 perfected ; the consequence was that the plants, not having 

 a suflicient number of buds to noiu-ish, formed unusually 

 stout woody stems. There was nothing uncommon in the 

 treatment beyond the severity of disbudding and thinning 

 out. 



To secure fine flowers is easy enough, by taking either 

 cuttings or rooted suckers from an old plant at the latter 

 end of March or beginning of April ; these should be potted 

 into 48-sized pots in a mixture of equal parts of mellow loam 

 and well-decayed leaf mould, suihcient silver sand being 

 added to make the compost porous. In a short time the 

 young plants will be well established, and by the end of 

 May should be repotted either singly or in pairs into pots 

 of 10 or 12 inches in diameter, in a mixture of equal parts of 

 loam, weU-decayed frame manure, and leaf mould, adding 

 silver sand to keep them porous. Be careful in weD draining 

 the pots ; crushed oyster-shells will be found very beneficial 

 for this purpose — the roots of the Chi-ysanthemums seem to 

 rejoice in these fragments. 



When potted the plants should be placed in an open and 

 airy part of the garden, and never be allowed to flag from 

 want of water ; as the side shoots are produced they should 

 be liinched out, and evei-y sucker that is thrown up from 

 the roots removed. About the middle of July three or four 

 leaders should be encoiu'aged, and from these the flowers 

 are to be produced. Early in August the flower-buds wUl 

 begin to show themselves, and now some judgment vnil be 

 required in selecting the bud which is to remain. Generally 

 a single bud presents itself, to which a kind of strap-leaf is 

 attached; this is the bud that produces the finest flower. 

 When that is well defined and has a green and healthy ap- 



