Ootot)«r 1, 1668. J 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



241 



is. What a fine aildition to our dessert at ChriBtmas would a 

 diflh of fresh-gathered ripe Oranges be, dressed np with their 

 own leaves and Orange hlossom. I long to see the day when 

 home-cultivated Oranges will be as common at the dessert 

 table as I'eacbes are now. 



Mr. Rivers hag such a number of stmotures and contrivances 

 for the cultivation of fruits, and oarrjing on his experiments 

 amongst them, that it is impossible to notice all, although there 

 may be some little peculiarity pertaining to each that makes 

 it interesting. There is one huge structure HO feet long, 

 the roof of which only is of glass, the back composed of board- 

 ing, and the front open, excepting the slight protection of a 

 common net just to break the severity of the cold Masts. This 

 is used for housing Tears and Plums in pots in spring, until 

 tho danger of frost is over, when they are placed out of 

 doors ; also for Roses, the v.'hole saleable stock of which is taken 

 up on the approach of winter, ani placed here. In this way 

 there are no losses from winter frosts. In a house of this size 

 about four thousand trees may be placed. If these are Pear 

 trees, estimating the produce at six fruits a-piece, and there ia 

 no danger of not having that quantity, a very neat return is 

 obtained for the outlay. Mr. lUvers's trees which he had 

 turned out from structures of this sort were, both Pear and 

 Plum trees, loaded with fruits. In one group alone I counted 

 some hundreds. Many of the Poars were of large size, and, no 

 doubt, of excellent quality; they had that full, juicy, warm 

 appearance, which tells of lusciousnoss. Soma of the earlier 

 varieties I tasted. Summer BeurrO d'Aremberg (noticed at 

 page 171), is a seedling of Mr. Rivers's, and is in all respects 

 excellent. It has that nice, brisk, rich acidity which makes 

 the old Beurrci d'.iremberg, when well ripened, such a favourite. 

 This brisk acidity with juiciness, to some tastes — to mine at 

 least — is far more refreshing than so much muskiness and 

 sweetness, especially in summer. 



On the Plum trees in pots there were enormous crops ; the 

 little trees were literally loaded, all sorts of them — Green Gages, 

 Golden Drops, from the big Magnum Bonum, to tho little 

 Mirabelle. This last is a variety very much like a small 

 Eullace, which is much cultivated in Friince for dessert. It is 

 very sweet and agreeable, and a most enormous cropper. Tlaere 

 ■were many seedlings amongst these Plums, some very pro- 

 mising, and like the Peaches, of somewhat curious origin ; one, 

 a large late blue sort, was raised from Reine Claude de Bavay, 

 which is a rather early green sort. This introduces me again 

 to the subject of raising Peaches, in which I must correct a 

 slight error I have made. The, Princess cf Wales Peach was 

 raised from the Pavie de Pompone, not from the Silver ; and 

 one of Mr. Rivers's theories is, that the Madeleine Blanche, the 

 Malta, and Noblesse Peaches, which are all pnle in colour, and 

 piquant in flavour, owe their origin to the White Nectarine, 

 one of the oldest of the race, imr.orted from Syria many, many 

 years ago. The flowers of all of these are similar to those of 

 the White Nectarine. 



Of cordons, about which we have heard so much lately, Mr. 

 Rivers has many examples to show, some have been in ex- 

 istence for several years. In France, this style of training in 

 all its various forms is greatly practised, and where well carried 

 out, the lines perfect, and the trees loaded with fruits, as I have 

 seen them, they are certainly extremely pretty. When I first 

 visited France some years ago, and saw the cordon Apple trees 

 as edgings along the sides of the walks, covered with beautiful 

 fruit, as they were then. I was much struck with their beauty, 

 and fancied that when I got home again I would do wonders 

 ■with them. Subsequent experience, however, has convinced 

 me, that, as a general rule, they are unsnited for this climate, 

 and that after all is said, it is too much like playing at fruit- 

 growing ; the expense for attention, &c., is too great for them 

 ever to be largely adopted. As pretty objects of ornament, in 

 suitable soils, where plenty of care and attention can be be- 

 stowed, then by all means have your cordon trees, but if all 

 this cannot be given, then avoid them. Mr. Rivers has some 

 lines of these low cordon Apple trees doing extremely well ; the 

 best are those grafted on the English Paradise stock, which 

 Mr. Rivers considers the same as the French Donoin. Those 

 on the French Paradise are not doing so well ; some are trained 

 to a fixed wire, the same way as the French do, and which is 

 decidedly preferable to that of pegging them down with hooked 

 vfires — another mode adopted by Mr. Rivers, my objeetiin to 

 which is. the difficulty of growing the shoot straight, owing to 

 there being nothing to fix it to : we can peg down, but we 

 cannot peg np, and the tree bends just as often the one way as 

 the other. 



The oblique and vertical cordon Plum and Pear trees on tho 

 walls and trellises under glass and in the open air, were all 

 looking well, the trees being in fino condition, and full 

 of fruit buds. The masterpiece of all, however — without ex- 

 ception the finest piece of training and gardening in the whole 

 establishment, ia a lino of thirty-two upright cordon May Duke 

 Cherry trees in tho open ground. They are grafted on the 

 Mahaleb stock, and range from 8 to 10 foot in height. Never 

 have I seen more beautiful trees than these, perfect in every 

 sense ; from the very ground to the very tip, they form just one 

 unbroken column of beauty, the stems being densely clothed 

 with fruiting spurs, none exceeding much more than .T inches 

 in length. How beautiful they must have been when in flower, 

 and again when tho fruit was ripe. When I saw them the crop 

 was just over ; by the stalks remaining on one, I could see that 

 the produce had been immense. Day by day for years, these 

 trees must have been attended to with the greatest care for 

 them to have attained their present beauty. How beautiful a 

 garden would be with lines of trees like these ! and Mr. Rivera 

 shows that it may be done. 



Another feature here, which in some respects resembles these 

 Cherry trees, was the pyramidal Prince's Engleberl Plum 

 trees. There are great numbers of thi-; variety growing in the 

 fruit-tree quarters, the trees about 5 feet high, all loaded with 

 beautiful fruit, from the ground upwards. They were ex- 

 tremely handsome. This is a most excellent Plum, the quality 

 good, and the tree is an extraordinary bearer. What an enor- 

 mous quantity of fruit could be obtained from an acre of ground 

 planted with trees like these. They might be planted in lines 

 like hedges to divide the quarters in the kitchen garden. Mr. 

 Rivers grafts from five to six thousand a-year of ^t, so much 

 is it in his favour as a profitable market variety. 



I must not omit to notice a most remarkable vai-icty of 

 Cherry — the Belle Agathe, which is to be seen here. There are 

 two goodly-sized trees of it just at tho back of Mr. hivera's 

 house, loaded with fruit. This is the latest variety of Cherry 

 in existence, ripening generally in the end of September, and 

 hanging on the trees until October. I have seen them in No- 

 vember. It is a free-bearing variety, of rather small size, when 

 well ripened very pleasant in flavour. Its peculiarity, how- 

 ever, ia this, that the birds do not eat it. Why they do not, it 

 would be interesting to find out. It is sweeter than many 

 others that they do eat. It is well known that our feathered 

 friends also do not meddle with the yellow Cherries, which are 

 as sweet as any. That, however, has been accounted for on the 

 supposition that the birds never know when they are ripe. This 

 theory, however, scarcely holds good, as there are many yellow 

 fruits very greedily devoured by them. Here is a question 

 worthy of the notice of our scientific men. 



There is hero also, in one of tho compartments near the 

 orchard houses, a group of about one hundred dwarf bush 

 Apple trees, that are well worthy of notice. They are about 

 3 feet in height, just resembling little Gooseberry bushes, and 

 planted 3 feet apart each way. Pretty little trees they are, 

 abundantly set with fruit-buds, and some of them well loaded 

 with fruit, on an average from eighteen to twenty-four on each. 

 These trees are from seven to eight years old, and are kept in 

 their present fruitful condition by being every alternate season 

 transplanted, at least such of them as may seem to require to 

 have their vigour suppressed. It is only by this continual re- 

 moval, and checking their superabundant growth, that these 

 trees can be kept in such a dwarf and fruitful state. The soil 

 in Mr. Rivers's grounds, however, is uncommonly well suited 

 for this system of culture, being of a liyht calcareous nature, 

 with a sandy or gravelly subsoil. 



It cannot fail to be observed, in walking through Mr. Rivers's 

 nursery, how stubby, short-jointed, and fruitful all the frees 

 seem to be, even in their youngest stage. This may partly 

 arise from the stock on which they are worked, or from their 

 repeated removals. It is, however, chiefly owing to tho cal- 

 careous sandy nature of the soil. In soil like that, I have al- 

 ways observed that fruit trees grow but slowly, but bear fruit 

 enormously. It would bo quite correct to plant fruit trees by 

 the acre, at 4 or C feet apart in ground of this nature. It would 

 be decidedl.y the most profitable. The trees, whether .\pple. 

 Pear, Plum, or Clierry, would bear well in a young state, and 

 through growing slowly, it would be many years before they be- 

 came too crowded. In rich, alluvial loams, however, the case 

 would be far different — .-such as in the Middlesex valley of the 

 Thames. There young trees grow like Willows, and bear but 

 little fruit, all the crop being produced on the older and larger 

 trees that have been allowed a little more of Nature's way. The 



