638 GAnDEN MANAGEMENT. 



1989. Fif/s.— These may possibly bo ripening their third crop ; if so, a 

 brisk temperature of 65° or 70^ must be kept up. If the second crop is 

 gathered, and a third is not wanted, reduce the supply of water and the tem- 

 perature to a minimum, to induce rest or hasten maturity. 



1990. Orchard- house, unless used to ripen fruit that has been retarded 

 behind a north wall, must now stand open night and day, or the trees be re- 

 moved outside, and the house be devoted for three months to storing bedding 

 plants, &c. If the trees are planted out in the borders, then tbe lights may be 

 stored away for three months, or used ^or other structures. la all cases 

 secure a season of perfect repose for the trees, 



1991. StraAvherrles.— These will, or ought to have completed their growth 

 for the season : the sooner they go to rest the oetter. The floors of orchard- 

 houses are the best possible wintering-places ;— as cool as possible, without 

 being frozen, is all the winter treatment they require. Properly placed, it 

 is seldom indeed that they require any water until they are wanted to grow. 

 Lacking the floor or stage of any cool house or cold pit, the next best mode 

 of keeping them is to stack them, not exactly as reaped corn is stacked, 

 with all the heads inwards, but just the reverse— heads out, if you please. 

 The stack can be built on any dry bottom ; the best possible position being, 

 however, the south side of a wall or fence. In such a position mark out a 

 place a yard wide or so, and of any convenient length, according to the quan- 

 tity of plants, and spread upon it a layer of ashes three inches thick ; place a 

 row of pots on their sides at the distance indicated from the fence, or nearer, in 

 proportion to the number of plants or height of stack contemplated. Fill up all 

 between the pots, and the space between the bottoms of the pots, with dry 

 ashes or old tan, keeping the side next the wall a little the highest. Then place 

 another layer of plants on the top of the first, about two inches further 

 back than the other. Fill up as before, and repeat the filling up, and layers 

 of pots, until this space is occupied, top of the wall or fence reached, or all 

 the plants provided for. The whole will then present a sloping surface to the 

 sun. A boarded roof, six inches wider than the bottom rows, should then 

 project over the top, and slightly incline to the back : the front may be sup- 

 ported on stakes driven in at inien^als of six feet. Always excepting the 

 Hoor of a cool house, there is no better mode of protecting and treating 

 plants than this. They are kept dry, the frost has little or no influence upon 

 them ; for if it is very severe, a thatched hurdle may be laid against them, 

 and ootb pots and plants are preserved in safety. D. T. F. 



§ 7. — ^Bee-eeepinq, 



1992. The hopes and fears of the bee-master may be said to be over for the 

 season. Almost all labour will be at an end in October : the weak hives are 

 supposea to have been joined, the winter stock remaining ; these must be 

 weighed. If, after naving allowed for the weight of the floor-board, hive, ant); 



