Deotmber 11, 186ft 1 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



+41 



Sainii.l jr,v/»(o(^/(. — Brilliant scarlet, with n yellow throat. 



Very fine. 

 Sir James Clark.— Salmon ; lino carmino throat on a yellowish 



ground. A very lino variety. 



The Qalonel. Dark .scarlet; good shape, ami lino spike; 



white throat- 

 There aro many other good varieties of Mr. Standish's, hut 



these have flowered well with mo this yoar. — D., Deal. 



MARKCIIAL NIEL ROSE, AND CArTAIN COOK 

 STRAWBERRY; 



Since writing a reply to Lady King's two questions I have 

 received six line specimens of Marfchal Niel Rose from Mr. 

 Keynes. Three of thorn measure from tho point of union 

 50 inches each, and the six plants average 44 inches. They 

 are on short briars. I have also planted a fine specimen of 

 Isabella Gray on its own roots. I shall now see which is better, 

 the mother or the son. 



As " EdiEA " wishes for information about Captain Cook 

 Strawberry, I am willing to impart what I know about it. 

 There is only one Captain Cook. It was raised by the late Mr. 

 Nicholson, of Egglesclifl'e, Yorkshire. He kindly sent it to me 

 with other Strawberries, including two that I shall still retain 

 — namely, Scarlet Pine, flavour hors lirjnf, and Wonderful, 

 which is a great cropper and very good. Captain Cook is a 

 hardy plant and great cropper, but as its flavour was inferior 

 I rejected it. It was inferior to the eight which I named for 

 market purposes — namely. Sir .7. Paxton, Eclipse, Rivers's 

 Eliza, Empress Eugenie, Wonderful, Dr. Hogg, Cockscomb, 

 and Frogmore Late Pine. Once more I advise market gar- 

 deners to select from the above. They are sure cards. They 

 are not likely to have chalky ground. The Frogmore Pine 

 does not do so well on chalky ground, unless there is a strong 

 admixture of clay with the chalk, which is what we call " white 

 land," and is the best land in the world when the chalk and 

 clay are half and half. There are but two patches of " white 

 land " in the county of Dorset. I never saw a failing crop of 

 any kind on such land. 



There are other Strawberries, foreign and English, superior 

 in flavour and as good croppers as Captain Cook — namely, 

 Alice Maude, Marquise de la Tour Maubourg, Marguerite, Bonte 

 de St. Jnlien, a very good Strawberry, and Ne Plus Ultra (Ho 

 Jonghe), a large sort and a very heavy cropper. These four 

 are the firmest for travel, and bear large fruit and heavy crops 

 — Wonderful, Dr. Hogg, Cockscomb, and Frogmore Late Pine : 

 their flavour is excellent. — W. F. Radcxyffe, Qfceford Titepaine. 



ORCHARD-HOUSES IN LANCASHIRE. 



In your Journal of November 20th, at page 389, I read an 

 account of the great success a lady has achieved in orchard- 

 house cultivation from the pen of the Rev. T. C. Brchaut, who, 

 after enumerating the different sorts of Teach trees, and the 

 times at which they matured their fruit, goes on to say — " Now 

 the situation and general structure of this Lancashire house 

 must be good, also the management : and, let me repeat it, no 

 doubt orchard-houses under female management will do very 

 well indeed." 



I do not wish in any way to deny to lady amateurs their full 

 share of merit, or the possession of some faculties which we 

 gentlemen are said to want ; but as I live in Lancashire, and 

 have several times in your pages denied the success of a cer- 

 tain class of orchard-houses, which denial I founded on my 

 own experiments, and as no one has come forward to prove, 

 so far as I have seen, that I am in error in considering that my 

 own want of success was due not to mismanagement, but, as I 

 believe, to the physical impossibility of success, I cannot help 

 wishing that the particulars of the formation of the house, and 

 "what, if any, artificial heat was used, had been given with as 

 much care as was taken to tell us the date of ripening for each 

 individual tree. I know that this part of the subject, the 

 period at which a crop ripens, has more particularly occupied 

 the attention of the writer, just as the relative advantages of 

 different forms of hothouse structures have attracted me ; and 

 as the matters above referred to undoubtedly have a very 

 powerful influence upon the success or failure of orchard-houses, 

 I venture to point out that if they are not considered the writer 

 may, without intending it, lead ladies to put up houses from 

 which even the most powerful combination of feminime attri- 

 butes will fail to obtain success, for the very simple reason that 



though ladies do bring sunshine within our houses, it is not 

 the sort of sunshine that can warm an orchard-house. 



In an orchard-houso thero are two methods of growing Peach 

 trees — as standards and against the wall. I presume no one 

 will think I need arguo to prove that in Lancashire standard 

 trees will not ripen their crop in the open air, and I am quite 

 as sure that they will do no hotter in a span-roofed orchard- 

 house — that is, not a Peach-house, by which term Peach-house 

 I mean a houso whoro the ripening of the crop is duo to artifi- 

 cial heat, quite regardless of the shape of the house, or the 

 manner in which the treos aro trained. My reason for making 

 this assertion is, because I know that span-roofed orchard- 

 houses unassisted with artificial heat, or having only one row 

 of pipes, are not matorially warmer than tho open air, for they 

 are dependant on sun heat, and our modicum of sun heat is 

 too small to enable them to answer ; and I think if the period 

 at which the fruit ripens in these houses in the south of Eng- 

 land, where they have greater advantages than here, is com- 

 pared with the same sort upon the open walls, that my view 

 will be found to be fully borne out. Of lean-to orchard-houses 

 without pipes, or with only sufficient piping to enable them to 

 keep frost out, I have no practical experience, but what infor- 

 mation I have been able to obtain during this summer leads 

 me to think that with a row of pipes round them, one could 

 succeed with the treatment I am about to propose, and I am, 

 therefore, all the more desirous to know how these Peaches were 

 grown. Once the rule obtained by which success has been 

 secured, then it only becomes a question of close attention to 

 that formula, and I can quite believe that women are the most 

 capable of that steady, quiet, ever-watchful care which leads to 

 success. 



Now let me hazard a conjecture of how Peach trees in a 

 lean-to orchard-houso should he treated to command success. 

 I believe if it has a south aspect, and is not too wide, it will he 

 found to enjoy a temperature from 20° to 30' higher than that 

 of the open air, unless this advantage is lost by excessive venti- 

 lation, and that in ordinary weather if the custom of Peach- 

 house cultivation is followed — that is, if the house be shut 

 up in the afternoon, the advantage during the night will be 

 greater than during the day. Some may say that this will be 

 a misfortune, but I am of the opinion that it is the greatest 

 advantage this form of house possesses. But it may be said, 

 Custom does not say so ; to which I am ready to reply, In how 

 many cases does custom know what it does? Let is consider 

 if it is right to treat a Peach tree and a Vine in exactly the 

 same manner ; a Peach tree when it is exposed to cold, or out 

 of health, flowers, and sets and forms its fruit before its leaves 

 come, and then if they delay the fruit drops off, but if it is 

 forced, and treated kindly, the leaves come out much sooner, 

 and the result is that the reciprocal action between the roots 

 and leaves is begun in time to support the young fruit. I 

 will now consider the habit of the Vine, and shall ask, Does 

 not the bunch come after the fourth or fifth leaf ? and in this 

 case should not the proper plan be to treat it, as soon as the 

 leaves begin fairly to unfold, to rather less temperature, that 

 the bunch may be kept at a standstill till the leaves have the 

 roots moving, and then it will be safe to move on faster? and 

 in both cases as soon as the fruit or berries begin to swell they 

 should be kept on at a brisk pace till stoning time, as it is at 

 this period that the size of the fruit is determined. Question, 

 Which has the more power to do either of these things — forward 

 or retard a crop — the night or the day temperature ? My ex- 

 perience tells me unquestionably that the earliness of a crop 

 depends on the night temperatures, and that in our climate 

 the warm nights when we sit out of doors and enjoy the air, do 

 not last long after midsummer day, and that cold nights will 

 send the trees to rest regardless of the heat of the day, or whether 

 the crop is ripe or not, and hence the success of lean-to orchard- 

 houses where nothing is trained under the rafters, that the 

 sun's rays may have full power on the hack wall, which dots 

 not fail by radiation to increase the temperature during the 

 night, and as orchard-house trees are seldom permitted to run 

 their roots outside, those upon the back wall have all the 

 benefits of a border warmed by the direct action of the sun, 

 and never cooled by any current of cold air passing over it.; 

 and a dry warm border has also a great influence in shortening 

 the time required to produce a crop. 



I am trying to obtain meteorological tables of other climates 

 to see what light they throw upon this subject, the relative 

 night and day temperatures in spring and autumn, as I am 

 firmly of the opinion that in climates where the summer is 

 short and nature has consequently to move on quickly in pro- 



