May 2, 1867. ] 



JOXmNAL OP HORTICDLTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



311 



thongh the spending of the shilling would, ere long, save 

 pounds. We could name many places where in the way of 

 watering alone labour would be greatly lessened by the expense 

 of pipes for carrying the water where it is most needed. In 

 fact, our experience would say, If you wish to see improve- 

 ments go to an enthusiastic amateur. He will not scruple to 

 lay out a little money which will insure a constant saving 

 afterwards. With all these allowances, however, we consider 

 that your management, with the head man of sixteen years 

 old, and an occasional labourer, is highly meritorious. Gar- 

 deners as a body are well aware of the interest and variety to 

 be obtained in orchard houses. 



Tour house, however, is hardly an orchard-house, further 

 than its first cheap erection, as your hot-water pipes give you 

 all the advantages of a Peach-house or a vinery. We quite 

 agree with you, that, having that piping, you should bring in 

 the fruit earlier, and this you can do by having less air, but 

 taking care that the house do not become too hot by sun heat. 

 As the season advances you will want all the air at midday in 

 bright weather, but you can do much by giving only a little in 

 the morning, and shutting up early. Mr. Elvers regulates his 

 side ventilation by having gauze or thick netting inside of the 

 ventilators. By two tacks and a looped string we can open 

 ours a couple of inches or less, onwards to a full opening, and 

 provided a little air is given early, that will do for moderate 

 days, and more must be added if the sun is powerful. Provided 

 air is given early, the house may rauge with sun heat from 70° 

 to 90', but rather below 90' than above it. From 50' to 60° at 

 night. See Doings of Last Week.] 



PEACHES AND NECTARINES IN AN ORCHARD 

 HOUSE. 



I HAVE a small lean-to house, 16 feet long by 9 feet wide, 

 which has a south aspect, and is heated by a flue from another 

 house, running through it about 12 inches from the back wall. 

 There is room for an inside border, about 5 or 6 feet wide. 

 The roof is a little flatter than 45°. Would this be a good 

 place for a Peach tree trained up the glass ? The house could 

 be emptied in a month's time, and as I have two trees (a Peach 

 and Nectarine), very suitable in size, and about four years old, 

 I should be glad to know if they could be moved into the 

 house when the border is completed — say in six weeks' time. 

 They are now planted against alow wall, bu.t in an unfavoui-able 

 situation for ripening their wood properly. Being anxious to 

 have a little fruit next year, I should like to know in the first 

 place if the house would be really suitable for growing those 

 fruits ; and, in the second place, if moving the trees in full leaf 

 would be better than leaving them as they are till October, 

 and then bringing them into the house with plenty of soil.— 

 A. B. L. 



[The Peach and Nectarine trees will do admirably in the 

 border inside the house ; but you must not think of moving 

 them in six weeks. Let them alone until towards the end of 

 September or the beginning of October. By moving early and 

 carefully in autumn you will be sure of a crop in the following 

 year. Y(3u may grow something else in the border in summer, 

 as Cucumbers or Melons.] 



A WORTHY EXAMPLE. 



I AM a small freeholder residing about a mile south of Christ- 

 church, near Canterbury, in New Zealand, and until about two 

 years and a half ago was totally unacquainted with gardening 

 either as to its science or practice ; but being driven by stern 

 necessity, I arrived at the conclusion that nothing short of two 

 very important branches of horticulture would be likely to set 

 me right, and these were the culture of the Cucumber and that 

 of the Grape. 



How was I to surmount my difficulties ? I was not only out 

 of work, but was greatly in debt, and yet both of these produc- 

 tions required glass structures. 



Neither in theory nor practice did I know anything of the 

 culture of either ; but, undespairing, by one honest means and 

 another I obtained both wood and waste glass, that enabled 

 me to construct a house such as I most fancied, and from which 

 ultimately through hard struggling and perseverance I was 

 enabled to obtain a fair crop of Cucumbers in the first season. 

 By the aid of Mr. W. Thomson's " Treatise on the Grape 



Tine " I likewise obtained, in the same season, good growths 

 from my young Vines, which enabled me, in the February of 

 the following year (1806), to carry off the palm at our Christ- 

 church horticultural show with beautiful bunches of Black 

 Hamburgh Grapes, each weighing upwards of Ij lbs., from my 

 year-old Tines. 



I likewise constructed 74 feet run of Cucumber-frames, walls 

 of mud or cob, which I took great pains with, and 1 finally 

 succeeded in obtaining both glass and wood, as well as stable- 

 manure for hotbeds. I am happy to inform yuu that last 

 season I cut not less than 2600 Cucumbers, which I sold for 

 no less than £99 ; and that again enabled me last winter to 

 construct a larga vinery 40 feet long by 28 feet wide, and with 

 a span roof, and six-feet walls of glass all round. This I intend 

 to be a vineyard under glass ; and I have filled all under it 

 with as good a three-foot border as I could, to about 3 feet all 

 round the outside. To this I shall add, as the Tines advance. 

 The house itself rests on charred, stout wooden piles, resting 

 on the firm ground beneath. The Tines I think of training 

 horizontally on trellises in the body of the house, leaving 

 the roof clear ; they are chiefly Black Hamburgh, but I think 

 there is heat enough for a Muscat. 



I have planted 180 young Tines struck from eyes this spring, 

 and I think I have no cause to grumble, though they are not 

 making that headway which I had expected, but it was late in 

 the season when I had the house ready for them, and Christmas 

 had arrived before I had them planted ; but more of this some 

 other tima. 



I wish now to ask you to inform me why some of my most 

 prolific Cucumbers prove bitter oftener than others — in fact, 

 they are the only ones which prove bitter. Do you think it 

 arises from the plants, the mode of training, or the lack of 

 saline matters in the manure? I have hitherto trained my 

 Cucumber vines on the soil, inside the frames, pegging down 

 the branches where they have rooted, and 1 imagine this has 

 greatly assisted the plants. Last year I followed the same 

 practice, and cut Cucumbers from the same vines for six 

 months, from the 1st of December to June, and all through the 

 season I never heard of more than six or eight bitter fruit. 

 This season the seeds which I was most anxious to obtain not 

 having arrived from England. I was obliged to do the best 

 I could with what seeds I could procure, and the result was 

 some proved very prolific, but with a great tendency to be bitter. 

 The sun being very powerful here during the middle of the 

 day, with strong north-west parching winds, I have often made 

 it a practice to shade with canvas, and shut up closely during the 

 heat of the day, and the thermometer in the frames has often 

 risen to 100° during such times. I have likewise often watered 

 the beds with liquid manure, but sprinkling the foliage with 

 clean water. I always use water of the same temperature as 

 that of the frames. — Thoiias Lord. 



[Our correspondent is a member of Nature's peerage — a true 

 " lord " — one of those who are the conquerors, not the slaves 

 of circumstances. We hope often, and for many years, to re- 

 ceive the reports of his well-doing. We have done all that he 

 asked us to do in a postscript not needing publication, and we 

 now answer his query. Bitterness is always present in the 

 stalk-end of the Cucumber, being the part least ripened. When 

 it first occurred in our own practice we concluded that the sap 

 supplied to the fruit was not sufficiently elaborated, so we 

 increased the temperature of the bed, allowed a freer ex- 

 posure to the hght, and admitted air more liberally, both during 

 the night and the day. We had no more bitter Cucumbers.] 



NEW BOOKS. 



A Handy Book of Meteorology. By Alexander Buchax, M.A., 

 &c. W. Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and Landon. 

 When we opened this pocket volume the first sentence we 

 read was — " The truth is, no prediction of the weather can be 

 made, at least in the British Islands, for more than three, or 

 perhaps only two, days beforehand ; and any attempt at a 

 longer prediction is illusory," and we promptly concluded that 

 it is an honest book. Little did we think, however, that we 

 should thoroughly read its pages, but we did, and have placed 

 it in the row of authorities on our table, ready for reference ; 

 for it is, most truly, what it is designated, " A Handy Book." 

 It is one of those books, too few in number, which contain 

 nothing but what is desirable to be in its pages, and all is told 

 clearly and pleasantly, as no one can narrate except a writer 

 who is thoroughly master of his subject. We have not often 



