November 5, 1874. ] 



JOUENAL OF HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDENEK. 



397 



soil in my hand and squeeze it together. If it binds, water is 



not recinired ; if it refuses to bind it rerjuireB water, or, at least, 

 very soon will do so. This method will not do for those whoso 

 borders are principally composed of bricks and mortar ; mine 

 are made with loam and a few broken bones. Of course, it 

 is a very rude method, but it is the best I know of present. 

 I want our scientific friends to help us to a better one. 

 Another reason for reijuiriug some instrument as a telltale is, 

 that one must often trust to his subordinates' love of work as 

 to whether the stipulated quantity of water is given. I per- 

 sonally have never found any difficulty in this way, but such 

 a thing might occur. 



It is generally recommended not to water Tines after the 

 Grcpes commence colouring, and as a rule this is sound advice. 

 There are times, however, when this rule must be departed 

 from. If a quantity of healthy foliage remains on the Vines 

 after the fruit is ripe and the weather is bright, the border 

 may get too dry and the Grapes will begin to shrivel. Im- 

 mediately on the first appearance of shrivelling the border 

 should be examined, and if found dry, a bright clear day 

 should be chosen, when some of the driest surface soil should 

 be taken off and laid in heaps, the necessary quantity of water 

 applied, and the dry soil returned to its place. All this should 

 be done while there is abundance of air on the house. No part 

 that is watered should be left uncovered at night, and then if 

 the top soU is dust-dry, no damp whatever will rise through 

 it. If the lower eyes on the laterals have become brown, no 

 harm will be done by shortening the laterals considerably, 

 which will diminish the evaporating surface and lessen the 

 probability of the border requiring water again till the fruit is 

 gathered. — Wm. Taylok. 



LIFTING AND EOOT-PRUNING FBUIT TEEES. 



No. 6. 

 PEACH FAILURES. 



It is really wonderful to note what an alteration has taken 

 place in the views of horticulturists since we have had cheap 

 glass. How well the thing can be made to work in the hand 

 of the freetrader as compared with it in that of the monopolist ! 

 Glass has become the monopolist. Even Cabbages ere long 

 will not be thought delicate-eating unless grown under it. 

 Glass monopolises our ideas entirely. The young aspirant of 

 the blue apron considers subjects outdoors as beneath his 

 dignity, worth knowing only by labourers. He is sure to pass 

 with honours, it only his tuition be under glass ; and the old 

 finds what he had grown to such perfection outdoors is ac- 

 complished under glass with increased certainty and greater 

 comfort to himself. Upon the introduction of orchard houses 

 we were to have a crop without fail every year, to heat them 

 was quite unnecessary ; but now we lind the upholders of the 

 system advocating the very thing pointed out as resultant 

 from experience — the heating of them if crops are to be had 

 with certainty, not only in cold high positions, but in the most 

 favoured. Glass, then, as a protective material for the cultiva- 

 tion of the Peach and Nectarine, is not superior to a south wall 

 with the usual means of protection. Failures occur occasionally 

 — as often with one as the other, and because these occur we are 

 asked to believe in a theory that explains only truth away. It 

 is said our climate has suffered a diminution of temperature ; 

 Peaches cannot be grown against walls nor in unhealed houses 

 without loss of crop in an unpropitious season, omitting to 

 state the fact that they never were grown without occasional 

 failure by such means. The climate, not man, is at fault. 



Since the introduction of cheap glass a great stimulus has 

 been given to the cultivation of fruits. The outdoor culture 

 of the most tender kinds has been neglected, and the sole 

 cause and reason of Peaches not being grown so well on walls 

 now as formerly is conveyed in that one word " neglect." I 

 know it is a word that few like to have applied to themselves, 

 but what other word in our vocabulary is so suited to the 

 ooeasion, or can enable a correct explanation to be given of 

 why we cannot as successfully grow Peaches on walls in the 

 latter half of the nineteenth century as the first half ? Failures 

 there always were since I can remember ; failures we have now, 

 but have we no successes ? Look about and see if there are 

 no places where Peaches are not grown on walls, and if there 

 are any places where Peaches thrive in unhealed houses and 

 not on walls with protection, why by all means record the fact. 

 A protected wall is, in my opinion, every whit as good as an 

 unhealed house, and not nearly so costly in after-attention. 

 Some years ago orchard houses were to supersede walls en- 



tirely. Peaches were to be grown in nnheated houses, bat in the 



course of a few years the houses were found altogether useless for 

 the purpose unless they had means of affording artificial heat ; 

 in fact, we find not unfrequently that Peaches are grown by 

 themselves, separated from the Plums, &c., which everybody 

 knows are hardier subjects ; indeed, if Peaches could be grown 

 in a house with Apricots, Plums, Pears, and Cherries, it is 

 manifest the Peach could not be nearly so tender as it was 

 considered, and we must have erred in treating it to the 

 best aspect, and protecting its blossoms and young fruit in 

 spring and early summer. If it can be grown in an unhealed 

 house along with Plums, Pears, and Cherries, it certainly ought 

 to succeed in similar positions with these outdoors. The only 

 thing we have gleaned from the orchard-house culture of the 

 Peach is a confirmation of the fact known more than a century 

 past — viz., that it is now, as then, a tender exotic, requiring 

 for its cultivation in our climate the best of aspects, shelter 

 natural or artificial, or both, with protection for its blossom, 

 its young fruits, and tender growths. Anything short of this 

 means failure — disappointment by loss of crop. If our climate 

 be such as to insure the growth of the tree, the perfecting of 

 its bloom buds, their expansion in spring, and if efficient pro- 

 tection be given the blossom, young fruit, and growth, the crop 

 ripening-off late in summer, what more do we need to convince 

 us the climate is not unfavourable save in spring, and that 

 Peach-culture outdoors is not the difficult matter it is repre- 

 sented to be ? 



Now I have grown Peaches against walls sncoessfully. I 

 have had them fail both in an unhealed house and against 

 walls, just as the climatic conditions were favourable or the 

 contrary. The last four seasons I have made an attempt 

 at their culture on a south wall upwards of 500 feet above 

 the sea. I was told it was of no use in this climate ; even 

 in houses fire heat was necessary in spring to bring them 

 forward, and in autumn to ripen the fruit and wood. Well, 

 I thought to try Peaches upon a wall 200 feet long, but 

 considering discretion the better part of valour, planted four 

 trees only, the rest were Pears and Plums, alternating the 

 Peaches with Pears. They were not protected from the day of 

 planting to this ; and last season, as also this, two trees bore 

 a few very fine fruits ripening in September. The kinds are 

 Noblesse, Violette Hative, and Malta Peaches, and Violette 

 Hative Nectarine ; and the kinds which bore were Violette 

 Hative and Noblesse Peaches, the others not having fruited. 

 The growths were very rampant and did not ripen, so that in 

 lifting last autumn the roots were found away from the stem,- 

 and one-half the young wood of the previous year died back 

 nearly its whole length. I had an opportunity of comparing 

 their doings with over twenty kinds of Peaches and Nectarines 

 grown under glass with heat. Those under glass have, of 

 course, given more scores of fruit than the others have single 

 fruits. No one could expect a different result from the trees 

 under glass ; but the outdoor trees convinced me that Peaches 

 may bo cultivated successfully without glass, which, if the 

 wall be not covered with glass as contemplated, I trust to de- 

 monstrate more decidedly by using a firm soil and protecting 

 them, instead of trusting them to the chances of the weather. 

 My object was so far accomplished. Peaches unaided will, 

 against a south wall in 54° 30' north latitude and 0° 50' west 

 longitude, at 500 feet above the sea level, for two years con- 

 secutively ripen perfectly. The soil is not suitable for the 

 Peach ; it is a light and porous moory peat soil, heath and whin 

 being the indigenous vegetation of the open country. 



The Peach being not upon its own roots, how are we to re- 

 concile ourselves to the dictum of a strong soil for the Peach 

 and Nectarine, and a hghter one, even sandy and calcareous, 

 for the Plum and Apricot ? All ara on the Plum stock. Surely 

 the Plum roots are the same in any soil. Not at all. In a 

 light soil they have greater freedom of penetration and exten- 

 sion. If it be poor and dry the growth of the head will be 

 weak and productive of bloom, but not of fruit, for profusion 

 of bloom and of fruit do not necessarily go together. If the 

 soil be open and rich the growth will be strong, and the blossom 

 and fruit, until the vigour of the tree is overcome by age, will 

 be remarkable only by paucity and small size. Consolidate 

 the soil, and the resistance it presents to the extension of the 

 roots will cause them to branch and permeate through it more 

 slowly and thoroughly, and the head will be stouter, shorter- 

 jointed in growth, have denser foUage, and be more fruitful. 

 This constitutes the chief difference between a strong soil lor 

 the Peach and a light one. The latter is as good as the former 

 if it is rich and firm, so that the growths are short and stout, 



