356 VILLA GARDENING part iv 



Varieties. — The White Nerii is, I believe, synonymous with 

 the White Marseilles, and is an excellent kind for early forcing, 

 being one of the best Figs for forcing in pots. The Brown Tiu'key 

 is a good companion for it, coming in a little later. The black 

 Fig, Negro Largo, is a good one, and if more varieties are wanted 

 add the Black Marseilles and black, white, and brown Ischias, 

 which are all good. 



CHAPTER VIII 



The Apricot under Glass. — The Moor Park is the best 

 variety for planting in a house, and they may be trained to a 

 trellis, after the manner of Peaches. I do not recommend the use 

 of galvanised wire for the trellises, for there is a degree of un- 

 certainty about its action which would prevent my using it for 

 training choice fruits, or especially one so liable to gum as the 

 Apricot. The Apricot-house may be from 18 to 20 feet wide. If 

 a lean-to, the front trellis may stop 3 feet from the back wall, and 

 should be circular in outline, so as to let as much light as possible 

 fall upon the back wall. In a span -roofed house trees will be 

 planted on each side, 14 feet apart. The border should be partly 

 inside and partly out, and be composed of good loam, without 

 manure, as the necessary support can be given when the trees bear 

 freely. The border need not be more than 10 feet wide, for it is 

 more economical to lift the roots and remake the border when the 

 trees need such assistance than to make the border too large at 

 first. Two feet will be deep enough, and the drainage must be 

 perfect. If the trees are planted in sound loam without manure 

 there will be no gross or plethoric wood. Very little, if any, 

 shortening will be required, and the less pruning the better, for I 

 am jDcrsuaded that a great many of the ills from which Apricots 

 suffer are due to errors of pruning. If the disbudding and the 

 summer pruning are rightly understood and properly carried out, 

 very little pruning shoidd be necessary in winter, and that little 

 shoidd be left till the blossom buds are getting prominent, for 

 they indicate the part where the knife can be introduced. The 

 autumn, as soon as the leaves fall, is the best time to plant, and 

 I should recommend maiden trees only to be employed (I may say, 

 to satisfy the uninitiated, that a maiden tree is a tree which has 

 had only one season's growth from the bud, and has not been cut 

 back). In dealing with young trees, instead of permitting the 

 shoots of the graft or bud to rush away, as is commonly done, it 

 would be better to pinch the leaders when 15 to 18 inches of wood 



