292 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 10, 1865. 



cot, ripe ; July 16th, Mooiyark and Peach Apricots, ripe ; July 

 14th, some early Peaches from seed, ripe ; July 24th, Black 

 Mulberries, ripe, very rich ; August 7th, Early York and Vic- 

 toria Peaches, ripe ; August 10th, Early Silver Peach, ripe ; 

 August 14th, Early Grosse Mignonne, Belle de la Croix, Early 

 Savoy, and Belle de Douc Peaches, ripe ; August 22nd, Grossc 

 Mignonne, and many other kinds of Peaches, ripe ; August 

 30th, Noblesse, Royal George, and many other kinds of Peaches, 

 ripe; September 10th, Barringtou, and Princess of Wales 

 Peaches, ripe ; September 18th, Late Admirable and Walbnr- 

 ton Peaches, ripe ; September 24th, Desse Tardive and Mon- 

 tagne Tardive Peaches, ripe ; and this day (September 28th) I 

 have Poole's Late Yellow, Salway, and the Comet I'eaches ap- 

 proaching to ripeness ; and so ends my register for this season. 

 I think it will be seen from this that the system of free venti- 

 lation I recommend I prattise, and I know well that it may 

 safely be ajiiilied to the orchard-houses in England, in the 

 districts I have named. If any cultivator happens to have 

 pitched his tent in a cold, cloudy, windy climate, he should 

 do as I did in August last, husband the heat by closing the 

 ventilators early in the day. I will now in a few words give 

 the temperature of my free-ventilated houses. 



Yesterday (September 27th), was one of those bright, warm 

 days such as we have in June and July, the great difference 

 in temperature occuning at night, as usual at this season. 

 Well, at 2 P.M., my thermometer out of doors in the shade, 

 5 feet from the ground, gave 69° ; in the house, with doors and 

 ventilators all open, and the instrument under dense shade, it 

 stood at 80''. With submission to "G. H.," and Mr. Fish, 

 who, by the way, has, I fear, but little experience with large 

 Houses, this is not a retarding climate. During the night of 

 the 27th, the thei-mometer outside fell to 35° ; in the orchard- 

 house to 45°. I have become so accustomed to complete success 

 in my culture, that I have not observed daUy the thermometer 

 in my house ; it is always there, but sometimes not in a suffi- 

 ciently shaded position to bo accurate ; but as far as I have 

 noticed during the past summer, I have found the house, with 

 its wide doors at each end and aU the ventilators open, gene- 

 rally in sunny weather from 10° to 15° above the open air ; 

 thus, if we have had it in the shade out-doors at 80° (this has 

 happened frequently this summer), in the house it has been 

 92° to 95°, at night going down within 10'' of the open air. 

 This, as far as my experience has gone, is the most perfect of 

 ripening climates, as the coolness at night gives a racy flavour 

 to fruit far superior to that from houses kept close and hot. 



The practice and the logic of " G. H." are most amusrag, 

 " lean-to houses are not orchard-houses, even if fruit trees 

 are grown in them," see page 248, September 26th. Why? 

 Because " they have been xised for forcing dwarf trees, either 

 in pots, or planted out, ever since Mil!er"s day." Heavy reason- 

 ing this, '• hard pounding," as the Duke once said. 



As to his practice of putting his trees to rest by opening all 

 the ventilators of his forcing-house night and day, I can only 

 say it was delightfully original. " G. H." has not made use of 

 Ms ej'es ; the "immense houses half empty," with the tem- 

 perature in June and July, from 110° to 120°, are fictions of 

 fancy, Spanish air-castles. No such houses, and no such 

 treatment exist. 



Here, where there arc as many thousands of orchard-house 

 trees grown as there are hundreds in most places, twenty 

 houses are but 14 feet wide, and 9 feet high, and the largest 

 houses are but 24 feet wide, and from 12 to la feet high. In all, 

 as soon as summer he.at sets in towards the end of June, all the 

 ventilators are open night and day, and in July half the trees — 

 this applies only to young trees for sale — are placed in the open 

 air in full sunshine. " G. H." should come and see. Now, this 

 treatment is, as a matter of business, the most economical, for 

 without the free air night and day, red spider would be a 

 perfect pest, and not a shoot would ripen. I am inclined to 

 think that the experience gained by " G. H." is not of high 

 value, and v.ill not be thought so by your readers. 



The style of " G. H." is sharp and decisive, I must imitate 

 it. His trees were put to their unhealthy rest in August by 

 management so base as to be almost incredible. Fancy a man 

 getting out of his warm bed, going to his dressing-room, open- 

 ing the window in a cold morning, and standing before it 

 naked, he would most likely die. The wonder is that the 

 wretched trees of " G. H." did not. His trees did not di'oii 

 their blossoms from the effects of cold winds. In March and 

 April, when Peach trees bloom, the cold dry winds in a sunny 

 day, if properly admitted, drj' and disperse the pollen, and do 

 infinite good. It was stagnant air that made ithem drop. 



]\Iuggy, warm, showery weather, will do it effectually, if a 

 house is not well ventilated. 



To conclude, I beg through yoiu- columns to give " G. H." 

 a hearty invitation ; if he merely lives at a short distance from 

 here — say. Stony Middleton, in Derbyshire, where they harvest 

 their Oats in December, or on the " Backbone " between York- 

 shire and Lancashire, where they never harvest them, he can 

 easily come ; but if he lives in the Orkneys, the Shetlands, or 

 the Lolfodens — from his non-rij5ening climate, it seems pro- 

 bable — I cannot expect him. I can only say that I will give him 

 a hearty welcome, feed him, drink him, I mean give him 

 (hiuk, show him all, tell him all, and " put him in the way he 

 should go." I only stipulate that he should send in his card 

 10 me, with " G. H." on it. — Thos. Eiveks, Sawbridyeicorth. 



DOUBLE-FLOWERED PEACH FRUITFUL. 



SoMK months ago a correspondent inquired whether the 

 Amygdalus persica flore pleno produced fruit, and if so, was it 

 edible ? The fact of its producing double flowers would have 

 negatived the question if the flowers were always double, but 

 exceptions sometimes occur. 



A small tree was planted here about seven or eight years 

 ago, and has uniformly thriven well ever since ; it has also in 

 most seasons flowered profusely, and in the spring of the pre- 

 sent year excessively so. Upon examining the bloom it was 

 fomni that many of the flowers were single, and the spring 

 frosts being slight, fririt was the consequence. The continuous 

 warm weather has ripened it ; and on the tree, which is now 

 about 12 feet high, before the fruit began to fall, there were 

 three dozen Peaches, most of them quite equal in size to ordi- 

 nary wall Peaches, but differing from them slightly in having 

 a deeper cleft. To the taste they are by no means disagi'ee- 

 able, but rather harsh, and it not perfectly ripe too tart. The 

 Amygdalus persica is one of the most beautiful of om- flowering 

 trees, and deserves a place in evci-y garden. Cultivation for 

 the sake of the fruit must not be taken into consideration ; for 

 although edible it is greatly inferior to that of the cultivated 

 Peaches, and the bearing is uncertain. 



It is worthy of remark that the present year has been highly 

 favourable to the production of fruit upon exotic trees and 

 shrubs that have either never before, or very rarely, borne 

 fruit in this country. Some notable instances of Coniferre have 

 been given by Mr. Robson. Some useful facts would be gleaned 

 if correspondents would make known cases that come under 

 theh- notice. — Adolphus H. Kent, Blechimjlcy, Surrey. 



HIGH LEIGH, HODDESDOX, HERTS. 



On one of those prettily- wooded knolls, with which the county 

 of Hertlordshire abounds, about two miles from the Broxbom-ne 

 station of the Great Eastern Railway, is High Leigh, the seat 

 of Duncan J. Kaye, Esq. At the entrance is an elegant lodge, 

 in the construction of which convenience as well as beauty 

 seems to have been kept in view ; draped in the verdiue of 

 numerous trailing plants, and surrounded with gay and odorous 

 flowers, it atti'acts many a passer-by to pause and admire. 

 This is on the right-hand on entering, and on the left is a belt 

 of mixed evergreens and deciduous shi'ubs, including a choice 

 and well-varied collection of HolUes, and good and vigorous 

 examples of Thuja Lobbii, Thuja gigantea, Cupressus Law- 

 Boniana, Juniperus chiuensis, Wellingtonia gigantea, the Cock- 

 spur Thorn laden with clusters of red berries, and the elegant 

 but little used Symphoricarpus vulgaris variegatus. It is worthy 

 of remark here that these and other valuable trees and shrubs 

 were j>l:inted two years ago on a bed of gi'avel, and are the best 

 evidence we remember to have seen in overcoming this dis- 

 advantage of soil by deep trenching, and the addition of a httle 

 good loaui, and occasional watering in dry weather ; Laurels, 

 Mahonias, and even Roses grow there with an extraordinary 

 vigour. 



As wo proceed up the carriage-drive we observe to the right, 

 at some distance, the farm and farm buildings, all in beautiful 

 keeping, and we wish momentarily that we might diverge to take 

 a closer view of them, but our business is with the garden. We 

 enter the court-yard, and a fine Elizabethan mansion with 

 square tower, built some thirteen years since by Mr. Lucas, of 

 London, and recently redecorated by Mr. Rayment, of Hertford, 

 immediately confronts us ; the servants' compartments and 

 laundry on the north side are covered with neatly-trimmed Ivy. 



