July 16, 1869. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



37 



EARLY PEACHES IN ORCHARD HOUSES. 



t T is now generally agreed that oiir fruit crop 

 of all kinds on the open walls will be small, 

 however brilliant may be the exceptions. 

 Many reasons are urged for this, the chief 

 and most probable of which seems to be 

 the disastrous spring weather during the 

 blossoming period, which rendered profitless 

 those summer shoots which the unusually 

 warm season of last year had ripened. No 

 doubt, however, in light soils, where the aid 

 of hand- watering was not available, even these shoots were 

 somewhat dried up, and will now recover a little, but more 

 than all by a temporary absence of production. 



If we bear in mind that nothing exhausts a bearing 

 tree so much as excessive cropping, which exhaustion no 

 artificial stimulants will long con-ect, we may reach the 

 true reason of many cases of failure this year, especially 

 under glass. Orchard houses are now very common, and 

 the knowledge required to work them fairly is nearly as 

 general, but whether it be over-confidence in the powers 

 of trees, simply because they are in glazed structm-es. 

 the unreasonable demands of ignorant owners, or that 

 there is yet something to be learnt from the greater expe- 

 rience of others, I may, with confidence, here point out 

 such a certain cause as excessive cropping as one great 

 reason of this season's shortcomings. My experience, as 

 one of the very earliest orchard-house cultivators, decidedly 

 points to this fact, and I have always so carefully regulated 

 the amount left on each tree as to insure a good crop, no 

 matter wliat the season has been, and tliis without any 

 aid from hot-water pipes. These would be, however, ex- 

 tremely useful as auxiliaries in almost every instance 

 during such a spring as we have passed through, for the 

 blooming process was performed under very unpropitious 

 conditions everywhere. Here the drenching cold rains 

 filled the houses with stagnant vapour, which the absence 

 of wind prevented our keeping in motion so as to keep 

 the pollen from being glued iu. We did not know what 

 to do. If we opened the ventilators, we lowered the already- 

 dinunished temperature ; if they remained closed, the evil 

 became greater from stagnation. A little artificial heat 

 then would have enabled us to stir up and move the 

 clammy mist, and by admitting top ah", to completely 

 renew the atmosphere at our will. Since that period we 

 flave had here only partial gleams of sunshine, wliich often 

 oisappeared in damp sea haze, making the very walls of 

 passages white with drops of \apour. What can be hoped 

 lor under such conditions, without some artificial appliances 

 and much extra trimming and adjusting? 



Nevertheless I am quite sure had not the crop upon 

 my trees been year after year carefully thinned, and less 

 mut left on them each season than we hear of so often in 

 these and other columns, that nothing would have availed 

 to make a fair amount set. The trees have been regulated 

 every year according to their powers of bearing, and have 

 now acquired a steady habit of production. Thus they 

 are independent of atmospheric changes ; nay, expecting 



Ko, lS3,-VoL. XVII., New Seeies. 



that the crop would be short by reason of our early spring 

 weather, I have, from motives of profit, actually called on 

 these obedient cordons to repay me some portion of my 

 time and money spent on them, and have now ripening the 

 largest crop of Peaches and Nectarines that has been 

 borne in these houses for fifteen years. Some diagonal 

 cordons of this mature age are now covered so thickly 

 with fruit as tc be a wonderful sight ; let us hope tiiey 

 will not Bufl'er too much from tliis unreasonable demand. 

 When first these diagonals were introduced, it was objected 

 to them that they would soon be worn out. On the con 

 trary, I think it is certain that no trees in pots — much 

 less trained fanwise — could have thus kept up their rate 

 of production for a succession of seasons, and in a year 

 like the present, when the best growers own to a " short 

 crop, " supply an extraordinary demand on their vital 

 powers. The cordons have much the best of it in 18G9. 



It requires no great amount of skill to obtain a heavy 

 crop from potted trees, received from good nurseries in 

 splendid health and vigour, but how long will the same 

 trees continue to bear at this rate '? Do we not hear soon 

 of attacks of red spider, of weak buds, and of fruit dropping 

 when stoning? There remains a consolation, and that is. 

 that these trees may bear well next season, simply because 

 they have had an enforced rest. To obtain regular crops, 

 which shall be heavy and well ripened, we must have an 

 extra supply of trees, and allow some of them to rest 

 every tliird year or so ; and this is very easy and inex- 

 pensive to do. 



The blooming process is exhausting to trees. It is, in 

 fact, more like an act of abdication than of progress. The 

 tree has to reproduce its kind, and make room for another 

 generation. The great heat of last season had probably 

 filled the cellular tissues with an abundance of " reservedl 

 sap," and thus prepared an early and free bloom. With 

 us this occurred rather earlier than common, and lasted an 

 unusual length of time. There was also plenty of bloom 

 on the trees, but fearful weather. In the case of trees 

 under glass, now was evidently the time to try my old 

 friend Grin's "last dodge" — to mutilate the flower buds 

 while still in embryo 1 But alas ! my faith was too weak. 

 I recognised the correctness of the principle, but had 

 neither the skill of manipulation required for such a deli- 

 cate process, nor the power of sight. M. Grin must use 

 glasses of strong magnifying pov,-ers ; nevertheless he is 

 right, as such a skilful cultivator should be, and we might 

 with advantage thin-ont the excess of bloom on our trees — 

 under glass at least. In the open air, except in the case 

 of vigorous Pear and Apple trees, it would be full of risk 

 in uncertain weather. By leaving only the central bloom 

 bud of each cluster of Chaumontel Pears, which set freely, 

 we may calculate on producing these longer- shaped fruits 

 which are most admired, and weigh so "much. But I 

 confess to not having practised this thinning of the bloom 

 of Peaches under glass, preferring to reduce the amount 

 as soon as the blossom had set, and to do so with an un- 

 sparing hand, and the result has been good. 



The Peach crop on the open wall must be a failure in 

 general, and I have heard on the best authority that it is 



Ho,10S;.— Vot.XLII., Old SErjBj. 



