236 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTURK AND COTTAGE GABDENER. 



[ September 19, 1865. 



gardens, and I may include, if the account I read is correct, 

 the royal garden, scarcely, if yet, finished, will they not look 

 in vain for fruit-houses huilt on any other plan than those I 

 have named ? Each time I read an old book on the subject I 

 rise with the feeling, Can it be there is nothing new under the 

 sun ? and then I ask myself the question — How is it, with 

 cheap glass and a greatly increased command of heat, that we go 

 on building the same sort of houses ? and wonder that we, the 

 most commercial nation, as it is said, have actually retrograded, 

 and by growing our Vines and Peach trees under the glass in 

 lean-to houses, get the least result with the greatest cost ? 

 Should not our aim be — the greatest number of square feet of 

 pit or trellis, as the case may he, for the lowest cost, and to 

 suit the cultivation to the shape ? 



The cheapest shape points, unquestionably, to large, square, 

 tall houses ; but 

 when I advocate 

 such, I am always 

 told that nothing 

 can be grown in 

 them but tall or- 

 chard-house trees ; 

 and as " the Eden- 

 like pleasure of 

 walking about un- 

 der the shade of 

 my own Vine and 

 Fig tree " does not 

 chime in with my 

 commercial no- 

 tions, I had no 

 course left, as I 

 concluded the pre - 

 sent shape was in- 

 duced by necessity 

 at some period, but 

 to try and find out 

 that cause, and so 

 be able to judge if 

 it stiU existed. I 

 have not been able 

 to find this cause, 

 but, on the other 

 hand, a great deal 

 to lead me to be- 

 lieve none ever ex- 

 isted. As I have 

 said, I consider 

 growing Vines and 

 Peach trees under 

 the glass a retro- 

 gression. I have 

 two things to prove : 

 that it was not for- 

 merly done, and, 

 that it is a mis- 

 take. The follow- 

 ing is Miller's de- 

 scription of what he 

 calls a " dry forcing 

 stove " for forcing 

 Vines, Peach trees, 

 &e. : — "The area 

 is to he filled with 

 rich earth 2 feet 

 deep, in which the 

 trees are planted t<3 

 remain, having been 

 first trained in the 



open gi-ound tiU they are in a itate for bearing ; they are planted 

 in straight or oblique lines from the back to the front, the tallest 

 behind, and are trained against the back wall and front to a 

 trellis, and in the area as espaliers." " These stoves begin to 

 he worked in January or early in February." The house here 

 referred to was a lean-to ; no dimensions are given, so I con- 

 clude we must refer to his greenhouse plan, where he advises 

 from 20 to 24 feet wid". The front is shown as the same 

 height as the doors, and if we assume they were 7 feet high, 

 there was sufficient height for a tree. The last edition of 

 Miller's dictionary was published in 1768. 



Let us now turn to Mr. Speechly, in 1790. He advises a 

 lean-to house with a fined wall at the back of from 12 to 14 



feet high, and the width of the house to be 10 feet, and says, 

 " In regard to the future management of the Vines at the 

 rafters, it should be observed, that though it will not be ab- 

 solutely necessary to adhere invariably to the rule laid down of 

 annually cutting every other Vine down to the bottom of the 

 rafters, yet it will be proper to keep these Vines from extending 

 too far over the glass frames, and thereby shading the house, 

 which would tend to injure the Vines on the back wall. It 

 should be considered that the success of the Vines trained 

 against the flued wall is the first and principal object." 



I may here say, that a few months since I received a letter 

 from a friend in the south, asking me for some information 

 about pipes and boilers, saying, " My gardener wants me to 

 put pipes into my house, but as I have as many and as good 

 Grapes as my neighbours who have pipes, I do not see the 



good of it ; can yon 

 explain how it is ? " 

 I wrote him back 

 in reply, to say, I 

 had very little doubt 

 his neighbours 

 grew their Vines 

 under the glass, 

 and thus as the 

 sun's heat increased 

 the leaves also got 

 larger and formed a 

 green blind, keep- 

 ing the rays out. 

 I added, " If you 

 intend to growyoiu'S 

 in the same way 

 5-ou will certainly 

 require pipes also." 

 I subsequently 

 heard that it was a 

 lean-to house, but 

 the Vines were 

 planted against the 

 back wall, the front 

 being used for pot- 

 fruit trees. 



About four years 

 ago I visited, I may 

 safely say, our most 

 famous garden, that 

 I might see the 

 glass walls ; and 

 when there I asked 

 the gardener, who 

 took me roimd, 

 why they were built 

 so narrow ; for the 

 cost of a little more 

 roof the houses 

 might have been 

 twice the size. 

 The answer was, 

 " But how could 

 we train the trees?" 

 The same year I 

 was up i n London, 

 and stumbled on a 

 lean-to Peach- 

 house, where the 

 trees were trained 

 to a trellis against 

 the back wall, and, 

 as MiUer says, " in 

 the area, running from the back to the front, on espaliers." 

 When I returned home I put up a house in this manner : 

 back wall and front glass, each 10 feet high ; width, 12 feet. 

 Now for the calculation. In the back wall, 52 feet long by 

 10, = 520 square feet ; then I have a trellis 8 feet wide, 

 running at right angles to the glass at each 4 feet ; 8 x 10 

 = 80. X 13, the number of the trellises, = 1040; add 520 

 in the back wall, and I have 1560 square feet of trellis in a 

 house 52 feet by 12 ; granted there is not much room for ladies, 

 but there is sufficient for gardeners. 



Let me recommend this plan of front trelhsses to Mr. Brfi- 

 haut, he complains that his bush trees are unmanageable, 

 and I think it will make his house look more gardener-like. 



