October 29, 187J. 1 



JOURNAL OP HORTIOULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



375 



c?^ 



LIFTING AND BOOT-PEUNING FBUIT TKEES. 



PEACH FAILURES. 



AVING in previous papers treated of the 

 Apple, Pear, and Cherry, both on the free 

 and dwarfing stocks, 1 propose in this to 

 descant upon the hfting and root-pruning 

 of trees usually grown on Plum stocks — viz., 

 the Apricot, Peach, and Nectarine. I may 

 at the commencement observe that the 

 want of success in cultivating Peaches and 

 Nectarines on walls has, by our friends 

 over the border, been sought to be explained 

 by an endeavour at showing our climate to have decreased 

 in temperature. Admitting the theory that our earth is, 

 and has been for several thousand years, gradually cool- 

 ing down from its poles to the equator, it is stealing a 

 march upon time and our advanced ideas to say what we 

 shaD in these regions ultimately find our conditions as 

 regards climate to be — housed in snow, and clothed in 

 skins, subsisting on seals and other dainties, with at- 

 tendant comforts, of the present polar regions. Some 

 may hke to gratify their fancy by telling us what a very 

 different cUmate we should have were an oceanic wave to 

 obliterate from the map of the New World all Guatemala, 

 Yucatan, and Honduras, or were such a small gap made 

 through Panama as to let the waters of the Pacific Ocean 

 mingle with those of the Atlantic ; we, deprived of the 

 Gulf stream, would have a climate comparable to Iceland, 

 entailing loss of maritime supremacy and nobody knows 

 what. These and other probabOities of what this land of 

 ours was before we knew it, and what it will bo when we 

 have ceased to know it, are unquestionably delightful to 

 minds ever tending to materialism in the vain hope of at 

 last getting a glimpse of immaterialism ; but the broad 

 fact remains that our country, though it has been cooling 

 for thousands of centuries, has yet a climate and soil in 

 which we now cultivate more subjects foreign of warmer 

 climes than indigenous. Drainage, cultivation, and ma- 

 nurial agents have given us what we lack in climate. 

 To drain the land, as everyone knows, is to add a tempe- 

 rature of '2% in some cases more, to its natural one; to 

 cultivate is to do things at the right time in properly- 

 prepared soil with after-attendant culture ; whilst by 

 manure we push on the crop— it tides over a cold period 

 with the stimulant at its roots, and is sustained in a 

 hot and diy medium from the humus of the manure and 

 by cultivation. 



Almost everything we grow has been found to be 

 capable of cultivation in a lower temperature than was 

 calculated. From our greenhouses has passed to the open 

 air with benefit the Aucuba japonica ; many Orchids at 

 no distant date were roasted into life alias death, and the 

 Btewpans that were considered necessary for Ferns have all 

 passed away, leaving them much more healthful in our 

 temperature-decreasing climate. Albeit we have to look 

 on the other side. Grapes were grown in this country long 

 before glass was invented, and capital wine made of them, 

 an art which seems to have been resuscitated by Mr. Fenn. 



Ko. 7(9.-V0L. XXVH, New Skbibs. 



They are now grown against the walls of many cottage 

 homes. I have seen them in North Wales, in Shropshire, 

 and so far north as York ; whilst in the sunny south 

 Vines against walls are common enough. It is not to the 

 point to say they are not equal to those grown under 

 glass, but in the market they are of equal value with the 

 majority of imported ones, which are also grown out- 

 doors. 



Peaches, also, and Nectarines have been grown in favour- 

 able positions from Land's End to .John o'Groat's for at 

 least more than a century, if not longer, with the aid of 

 walls, and protection for the blossom and young fruit. 

 Abercrombie, about 1770, gives as full and concise in- 

 structifins for the cultivation of the Peach and Nectarine 

 as we possess now. It has been calculated, by the late 

 Mr. Thompson I think, that a favourable climate for 

 Peach-culture is when the temperature of February is 40°, 

 March 44", April 49°, May 50% June 01°, July 64°, and 

 August 63° ; but from Penzance in Cornwall to Sandwick 

 in the Orkneys we have not the favourable temperature. 

 We have, however, favourable positions enhanced by 

 artificial shelter, the aid of walls, and protection, which 

 give us a temperature of 4° to 5° above the natural one. 

 Any place, therefore, having a mean temperature for 

 February of 36°, March 40°, April 4.5°, May 51°, June 57% 

 July 60°, and August 59° ought to enable us to grow 

 Peaches against south walls, with protection for the 

 blossom and young fruit, but such is not the fact. In a 

 temperature for March of 40°, April 46°, May 52", June 

 58°, July 61°, August 59°, and September 55°, they do 

 not fruit freely nor ripen perfectly. It is patent that the 

 trees against a south wall enjoy for a shorter time the 

 additional heat, being, out of the twenty-four hours, 

 deprived of it for a longer time than it is secured to them, 

 and the mean, therefore, of the temperature for the south 

 wall and protection is made more than it really is from 

 taking the extreme highest and lowest, or at distant in- 

 tervals of the day and night ; and in this way the increased 

 temperature suffers a considerable diminution from the 

 small amount of heat retained by the means adopted. 

 So we must lower the resulting mean temperature of 

 the south wall proportionately, or 2°, which will give us 

 3° as the temperature of a south wall over the surround- 

 ing atmosphere, which will cause us to raise the tempera- 

 ture of the natural climate to, for February, 38°, March 

 42°, April 47°, May 53°, June 59°, July 62°, August 61°— a 

 temperature not possessed by any place of which we have 

 record north of the Tweed. Southward, and in Ireland, 

 we have many places with a temperature, aided by a wall 

 and protection, favourable to the Peach and Nectarine 

 ripening perfectly. There are spots even there which 

 from altitude have an unfavourable climate, and very 

 often these are not very distantly located. In a valley 

 at 50 feet to 100 or 200 feet above the sea, and if well 

 sheltered, the temperature may be such as to render Peach- 

 culture on walls practicable ; but at 400 to 500 feet above 

 sea level it may be impracticable from the diminution 

 of temperature due to altitude. In places north of the 

 Tweed sheltered spots are found where Peaches are grown 



No. 186U— Toi.. Ln., Old Seues. 



