TREES IN THE OPEN. 105 



culture which can be carried out successfully in a 

 small way can be done even more successfully on a 

 large scale. The ground for this prediction must 

 have been apparent to fruit-growers who, during the 

 autumns of 1900 and 1901, have had the pleasure of 

 seeing the fruiting bushes and half-standards of Early 

 Rivers nectarine (see Fig. 24) in Mr. Turner's tree 

 nursery at Langley (about one mile from his Royal 

 nurseries at Slough), and also at Messrs. James 

 Veitch & Sons' Langley nursery, both nurseries 

 extending a considerable distance alongside the 

 main line of the Great Western Railway Co., and 

 to the patrons of which the sight of the charming 

 floral picture in Messrs. Veitch's seed grounds, 

 consisting, as it does, of distinct and telling colours, 

 and a variety of soft and delicate tints, ranging 

 between pure white and crimson, is very refreshing 

 and welcome in emerging from a landscape whose 

 chief features are brickfields and their products. In 

 Messrs. Veitch's Langley nursery the Precoce de 

 Croncels ripens a few days before Early Rivers. The 

 loamy soil at Langley is fairly rich, deep, and 

 adhesive characteristics eminently favourable to the 

 growing of fruit trees, especially under such semi- 

 tropical (I almost said tropical) weather as we 

 have experienced the last few years (from 1897 to 

 1901). The solar heat being so unusually powerful 

 during the summer and autumn months of these 



