December t, 1808. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



123 



bnt even in that ensue we would not advise the Bteins of the 

 Potatoes to bo more advanced than 8 inches in length, fol if 

 mui'h longer the additional length will he more than 001 

 balanced by the increased tenderness. At the above li Dgth 

 much might be done by having the earth in the cold frame well 

 warmed by the gun before planting.] 



PEACHES— TIIEIK TIMES OF UU'ENINC. 

 AND CULTURE IN POTS. 



In your Journal of November 20th is an article on "The 

 Peach Season of I866j" and the dates are given of the ripening 

 of some of the difl at sorts of Peaches and Nectarines. In 

 Lancashire the Early ?ork ripened on the 20th of .Inly; in 

 the orohard-house here (JESsi I, ■ fed one of large 



size, "A by 24 feet, and lofty, it did not ripen until the 

 Dtb. of August. The fruit was of large size for that sort, 

 being 8j inches in circumference; it wa3 grown oil 

 planted in 11-inch pots. The next sort to ripen was Hunt's 

 Tawny Neatarine OB the 20tfli,; on t he same day I picked one 

 fruit of the White Nectarine. On the '21st I gathered Early 



eMignonne, Ac to ■ al I teorge, and Early Victoria, 



Peaches ; on the 25th Murorey Nectarine, and Red Magdalen 

 Peach; on 4he 27th Senrlel on the 28th Elruge and 



Rivers's Orai' " Nectarines^ and on the 30th Violctte Hative 

 Nectarine, and Girosse Migttoime 1' 



On September 1st Claremont [Elruge] Nectarine was ripe; 

 on tlie 4th, Pine-Apple Nectarine; and on the 12th, Cricket 

 Nectarine, a very good full-sized fruit of excellent flavour. The 

 Pitmaston I ton i -tarme came in on the same "lay, and in 

 pie following week the Barringfon and Bellegarde Peaches in 

 the order in which they are named, succeeded in the end of the 

 month by the Victoria Nectarine. The Walburton Admirable 

 did not carry any fruit this season ; it is a shy hearer here ; 

 two trees of it had plenty of blossom, but it did not set. 



The next was the Salway Peach, which ripened on the 

 1st of November. The fruit were the admiration of everybody 

 while they hung on the trees, but, alas ! it was all outside 

 show ; they were of a beautiful golden colour, and nr 38 

 10 inches in circumference, but they were woolly and tasteless, 

 and no one would eat them. However, I hope it was only a 

 result of this sunless season. 



All the trees here are grown in pots, and we thus obtain 

 fruit of the largest size and of good flavour, especially 

 case of the Nectarines. Some of the Royal George and Red 

 Magdalen Peaches were 101 inches in circumference. Failures 

 in growing Peach and Nectarine trees in pots arise from 

 various causes. With those who top-dress in the autumn one 

 cause of failure is over-dryness at the roots. Afters- 

 dressing the soil, and giving it a good watering, the moisture 

 does not appear to dry up soon, because there are no roots to 



extract it fr face soil, but the roots are acting m i 



the old soil in the pot and sucking it dry. I examined in the 

 spring of the present year several trees that did not seem to 

 start so freely as the others, and in each ease the old soil in 

 the pot was as dry as possible, while the fresh surface-dress- 

 ing was nuite wet. 



Another cause is over-potting; I have never had good fruit 

 from trees which had a large shift — for instance, if a tree is in 

 an 11-inch pot, it ought not to have a larger shift than into a 

 13-inch pot ; 2 inches wider at each shift is enough, ramming 

 the soil as firmly as possible round the ball, which ought nut 

 to be broken except to take out the crocks and scratch away the 

 loose soil from the surface. 



Then there are two enemies of the Peach tree about which 

 we hear much— namely, the black aphis and red spider. They 

 are easily enough destroyed if they are taken when they first 

 make their appearance ; the aphis I treat with tobacco smoke, 

 and the red spider with rain water. On the first appearance 

 of aphis bring out the fumigating apparatus, and use good 

 tobacco ; it is the cheapest in the end. Fumigate three times, 

 with an interval of four days between each fumigation, and 

 you will most likely be done with the black aphis for that 

 season. Red spider is the most insidious enemy, hov.i 

 the Peach tree, and quite as persevering as the aphis, but it is 

 never allowed to gain ground. As soon as the fruit ! 

 set, I commence syringing once a-day, for the i'rrst three 

 weeks in the morning about eight o'clock, but earlier as the 

 days lengthen ; afterwards the trees are syringed twice a-day, 

 and in very hot weather three times. I find that without water 

 in abundance at the roots and on the leaves there will he no 



full-sized fruit. I discontinue syringing before the first fruit 

 arc ripe, and 1 have no trouble with red spider. 



I am not an advocate for smothering the trees with mixtures 

 of clay, sulphur, soft soap, *»., as I find they do just as well, 

 and arc as free bom in eel pe ts without it, and I have seen 

 trees very much injured by sucn mixtures.— .1. 1 1 



I fkau that the lists suggested by Mr. Breha it, ] 39, 



would be of little use, unless the struc I the 



houses were the same. A lean-to again I a ' wall, 



and a span-roof running north and south, would produce very 

 different results. Then, again, the warmth of a house derjends 

 greatly on tho amount of ventilation given by th 

 These remarks are illustrated by the fact thu 

 friend in Lancashire ripened Marly i - this 

 20th of July. In one of my houses, thong by a 



little warmth in the spring, the same variety did not L'i] 

 the 25th, yet I have the advantage of 2° of latitude t 

 south of Lancashire. — G. S. 



HEATING, VENTILATING, AND SHAD I. ! 



Wets do we keep our hothouses and forcing-pits at an almost 

 uniform temperature regardless of weather ? Is lire heat con- 

 sidered as good as heat from the sun for the growth of plants? 

 One might be led to think so from the manner in which the 

 former is used and the latter wasted. If on a frosty night the 

 temperature of a house falls below the favourite figure the fire 

 is roused up, although there may be already 50° or 60° of arti- 

 ficial heat ; and again on a bright day in early spring. •■ hen it 

 rises slightly, the top of the house is thrown open, an >M 



dry air admitted to replace a warm moist one. As a natural 

 e hi 1'ipience with tender plants, the foliage soon droops, and 

 perhaps becomes parched. Shading is therefore applied, and 

 the sun's rays are excluded just as their benefit ought to be felt. 



For growing rapidly in spring many kinds of tender and 

 half-hardy plants, I believe that ventilating (till we find some 

 better method), as well as shading, may be advantageously 

 dispensed with. If no more fire heat is employed during cold 

 nights and dull days than is necessary merely to keep the 

 plants in health, and due attention is paid to the hygrometrical 

 of the atmosphere, the amount of natural heat and light 

 the plants will bear profitably, and the rate and 

 their growth under the most favourable conditions, will surprise 

 those who have not experimented on this subject. As an ex- 

 I may siate that the smallest-sized cuttings of Verbenas, 

 lums, c, may be struck as late as the end of April, 

 and probably at midsummer, in a dung-frame in full sun with- 

 out a leaf drooping. The dung used for the hotbed must be 

 sweets — a condition much more rare than is generally supposed. 

 There is, doubtless, in addition to the vapour of water, some- 

 thing emitted during the fermentation of stable-dung, to 

 strengthen the plants in proportion to their rapid elongation, 

 which we have not yet been able to imitate closely in our 

 houses, and for which due allowance must be made ; but that 

 much may be done by water alone is beyond all do. 



Having broached a subject which in my in erves 



much consideration, I now leave it in the hands of you" 

 able correspondents. — K. T. V*". 



We heartily reiterate the first sentence of your letter, " Why 

 do we keep our hothouses and forcing-pits at an almost uniform 

 temperature regardless of weather?" But do experienced gar- 

 deners do so ? It is many years since Mr. Fish directed par- 

 ticular attention to this subject, and the regulation of inside 

 i erature according to outside temperature, and the presence 

 or absence of sunshine ; and the whole practice of vent i 



and shading has been minutely and amply discussed in our 

 pages. That, however, does not lessen the value or the interest 

 of your letter. As a^general rule, shading is chiefly nei 

 in in bs from dull to very bright weather, especially 



if plants are near the glass. There is no doubt that there is 

 much which is genial to tender vegetation in a sweet dung-bed, 

 and in a sweet tan -bed ; and there can be no question of pro- 

 pagating as , or even farther en in summer, under 

 glass, without a hotbed, and with little or no shading, if the 

 light is diffused before reaching the cut;' 



Prolific Potato. — It will gratify othi , as well as 



Mr. Fenn, to know that one of that a us "Home 



Growths," the Gryffe Castte Seedling Potato, exhibited by him 



