314 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEB. 



f October 24, 1867. 



mained. The trees are trained npon a wire trellis in front in 

 this compartment, which is broader than the other houses. 

 They retained a profuse and healthy foliage, perhaps some people 

 might think too much so, but both wood and leaves were per- 

 fectly ripe, as the foliage fell off on being touched. This ob- 

 servation applies to all the compartments. The sorts here are — 

 Chancellor, a fine Chngstone variety ; Galande, very fine fruit ; 

 Salway, "worthless," to be uprooted; Walburton Admirable, 

 and Late Admirable. The borders are composed of a free 

 sandy loam, to which are applied bountiful waterings of soap- 

 suds. Two narrow old-fashioned houses followed uext. They 

 were planted with young trees at the back three years ago, and 

 the young wood had become very strong — too coarse — and Mr. 

 Stewart intends to have them taken up carefully and replanted 

 at once upon the spot. They are Koyal George, Eellegarde, aud 

 Grosse Mignonne Peaches, and two Violette Hative Nectarines ; 

 two of each kind planted alternately, I think. In front were the 

 first forced Kidney Beans, in pots, just coming into blossom. 

 This vegetable is required all the year round without a break. 

 Then followed a narrow early house to be started in December, 

 containing Eivers's Orange Nectarine (which Mr. Stewart con- 

 siders delicious when eateu as some of our finest Pears should 

 ie — in the very first nick of ripeness). Murrey Nectarine, " very 

 good but small ;" and of Peaches, Noblesse, Eellegarde, Eoyal 

 George, and Violette Hative, the latter "not worth keeping." 

 Along the front of this house, drying oS, were trays of seed- 

 heads of the Nuneham Park Onion. 



The second early Peach-houses were the next I entered, two 

 in number, on the Chiswick principle. Mr. Stewart had found 

 the sun too scorching for the trees in these light acute-angled 

 structures, so he had planted and trained thinly on horizontal 

 wires, Sweetwater, Eoyal Muscadine, and Muscat Hamburgh 

 Vines as a protective screen. I think it will be doubtful if 

 the latter Grape will ripen properly, so I must send Mr. Stewart 

 an Esperione. It would prove an excellent sort to grow 

 with the former two, and would be sure to ripen well and with 

 a fine bloom ; twenty-seven bunches have been cut off these 

 white Grape Vines this season ; they are two years old. The 

 trees against the wall are the Eoyal George, Grosse Mignonne, 

 Barrington, Noblesse, Galande, and Violette Hative Peaches — 

 the last four Mr. Bailey's old trees on his pet system of training, 

 all the bearing wood on the under sides of the branches ; and the 

 trees are certainly upon their last legs. Pyramidal Azaleas 

 ito pots were being temporarily housed in front, as it was 

 hardly safe to trust them out longer for fear of frost at night. 

 Every available corner of these houses is filled with bedding 

 plants during the winter months. 



On leaving the Peach-houses I remarked 1600 large 32-sized 

 or six-inch pots of Strawberries, in rows on each side of the 

 gravel-walk. The plants were in fine health and vigour, con- 

 cealing the neat edgings of Box, with which this and all the 

 other walks are bordered. A walk absorbs and radiates the 

 heat for the ripening of the plants better than the plots of cold 

 cinders on which Strawberry plants are so often crowded, and 

 the only objection, Mr. Stewart observed, to the plan is, that 

 it encourages the growth of weeds at the sides of the walk. 

 This I thought merely a secondary consideration, as a Dutch 

 hoe would soon cut them down, the advantages quite outweigh- 

 ing the objection, for the pots are easily accessible for the pur- 

 poses of cutting off the runners, surface-stirring, and watering, 

 and as for the worms, a piece of turf over the drainage in the 

 pots, and then some soot over that, will effectually prevent 

 their intrusion. This was proved by turning out several balls 

 for inspection ; not a worm was there, and a more health}' net- 

 work of clean fibrous roots could not be desired. The crowns 

 of the plants were also as firm as a sound Azalea bud. 



The liquid employed tor watering consists of four bucketsful 

 of cowdung to thirty-six gallons of water well stirred in a tub 

 which runs upon wheels, aud exceedingly grateful this applica- 

 tion is to the Strawberries. I have found when pot plants 

 are watered with liquid manure made from the droppings of 

 animals, that on the surface of the soil an almost impervious 

 film accumulates, which retains the water long enough around 

 the crowns of the plants to become prejudicial, and to Straw- 

 berries especiaUy. That Mr. Stewart did not approve of this 

 was evident by the frequent tipping of a pot to one side to cast 

 off the liquid, and I made known to him and now to the public 

 a simple-enough instrument, which but for the circumstance 

 I should have felt diffident about mentioning. It is a blunt- 

 pointed iron hook similar to those used for picking horses' 

 hoofs, and is 8 inches long, five-eighths of an inch broad, and 

 a quarter of au inch thick. It has a half-circular bend rising 



1{ inch, with a two- inch diameter, to form the picker at one 

 end, and having an eyelet-hole wrought in the other for the 

 purpose of hanging it up by. 



With this instrument I prevent any lodgement of surface 

 water in my pot culture, and I would advise every man con- 

 nected with plants to carry one in his pocket, or to have one 

 hanging conveniently within reach. A clumsy workman cannot 

 with it cut off the best surface roots, the bluntness of point 

 guarantees that, and the rim of the pot prevents the instru- 

 ment working too deep ; nor is the coUar ef the plant likely to 

 be damaged, or the best leaves to be broken off, as the picke» 

 glides round upon it obliquely, and is made to slightly surface- 

 stir the soil, while the left hand is made to keep circling the 

 pot towards the operator. A very large number of pots can 

 thus be gone over in a short time, and the surface-stirring being 

 performed once or twice a-week, air is constantly and water im- 

 mediately admitted. It is a great loss of time to have to linger 

 over pots of plants with the surface of the soil water-bound, 

 whilst the liquid is dribbling through by degrees. Some may 

 say, " Leave room for watering, do not fill the pots so full of 

 soil ;" but I answer, when Strawberry plants are fruited iii 

 six-inch pots, an extra half, or even a quarter of an inch of 

 surface soil is of great consequence, and so it is for most other 

 plants in pots, for then surface-stirring cannot be neglected 

 entirely, causing a weakly, unhealthy state of existence. 



Whilst in the houses the pots are placed in pans upon pieces 

 of charcoal, and bountifully supplied with the liquid manure, 

 the charcoal and pans never remaining without a supply. The 

 sorts forced in succession are — Keens' Seedling, President, Sir 

 Charles Napier, and British Queen. Mr. Stewart is of opiiuon 

 that ultimately he shall force few otter kinds than President, 

 for as regards good flavour and abundant production it bears 

 off the palm with him. 



The south wall is occupied to the end with Cherry and 

 Plum trees, among the latter are most of the best varieties. A 

 very extensive bed of young Intermediate Carrots occupied 

 part of the border, for Carrots are counted but of little worth 

 excepting in their young state, and the remainder of the border 

 was devoted to a local dwarf variety of Kidney Bean, excellent 

 both for forcing and garden supply. A curious freak of the 

 Brassica tribe was noticeable as the eye swept over the central 

 ground, the whole of which was trenched and manured with 

 vegetable matter at the same time. Brussels Sprouts took a 

 first position ; then followed Backhouse's Winter White Pro- 

 tecting, Cattell's EcUpse, Snow's Winter 'VMiite, and White 

 Cape Eroccolis. The patch of Brussels Sprouts was exceed- 

 ingly good ; of Backhouse's Broccoli scarcely a plant was not 

 diseased and sickly ; Cattell's was not quite so bad ; next came 

 of Snow's a good healthy crop ; and lastly, the White Cape, 

 better than Snow's. Neither Mr. Stewart nor myself could 

 account for such different results. Fiue young beds of Aspara- 

 gus finished-off the quarter, but the plants could never be 

 allowed to reach their highest perfection, as such immense 

 quantities are required for forcing. 



On the west border were beds of American Hautbois Straw- 

 berry, " a good cropper with flavour equal to the old kind ;" the 

 excellent Frogmore Late Pine, and Grove End Scarlet. The 

 north border of this division is chiefly occupied with Sir Harry 

 Strawberry, in my opinion quite a second-rate kind as regards 

 flavour, but one with which it is easy to swamp the house- 

 keeper satisfactorily, for it is an extraordinary bearer, and 

 retains its shape well when preserved. When the plant is 

 treated as an annual the fruit is better flavoured, and may then 

 be allowed to pass muster in a dessert. This north wall is 

 occupied with old Plum trees, soon to be uprooted and replacad 

 with Morello Cherries. At the top part of the quarter were 

 British Queen Peas, just coming into pod, and there is to be 

 found the prime necessity of a garden, a good supply of water 

 in a large, deep, round tank. An underground-pipe conveys 

 to it the water, forced thither by horse-power machinery, which 

 is fixed in the orchard or eastern blip, and through other stop- 

 cock pipes to the mansion and all parts of the grounds. The 

 supply is derived from a pool in the park, but there is also 

 adjacent to the machinery a deep well, from which spring water 

 is pumped up to the house. The front of Mr. Stewart's com- 

 fortable domicile again confronts one here, with oblong beds of 

 Carnations, in fine grass and full of health ; also Gladioluses, 

 LQiums, etc., which are flanked on one side by beds of bush 

 Eoses, propagated by cuttings, a bee-house and Neighbour's 

 hives, and on the other by the Cherry wall, on which are trained 

 some fine Pear as well as Cherry trees. A Pear here struck me 

 as being worthy to single out— a Crasanne-looking fruit. It is 



