434 CHERRY FORCING IN BRITISH GARDENS. 



feet high at the back, and seven feet high in front, or any other con- 

 venient size. The ends should be of glass, and both ends and front 

 should be placed on brick walls two feet high supported by arches. 

 The front sashes may either be hung on hinges at the tops, or at the 

 sides, to open outwards. The roof sashes should be in two lengths ; 

 the lower ones to pull up, and the upper ones to let down. As cherries 

 require a great deal of air, and this often during wet weather, above 

 the upper sashes there should be a projecting flashing of lead, to 

 exclude the rain when the sashes are let down an inch or two. The 

 heating may either be by flues or by hot water ; and in either case one 

 furnace or one boiler, with the flues or pipes going round the house 

 immediately within the front and ends, will be sufficient. 



Kinds of Cherries for Forcing, Potting Plants, fyc. Hardly any 

 fruit has been more improved, or more rapidly, than the cherry. A few 

 years ago it could be truly written that the best forcing cherry was 

 the May Duke, and indeed it was the only one generally used ; now 

 there are over one hundred varieties of more or less merit. We will 

 endeavour to select a few of the best : Werder's Early Black, 

 Knight's Early Black, Bowyer's Early Heart, Bigarreau, Napoleon, 

 Belle d'Orleans, Florence, Black Eagle, Noir precoce, Early Purple 

 Guigne, Downton, Elton, and White Heart. The plants for potting 

 should have been three or four years worked, and should be 

 such as are well furnished with blossom-buds. The soil used in 

 potting may be a stiff, almost clayey loam, such as that in which 

 melons are grown ; to which, if necessary, one-fifth part of thoroughly 

 rotten dung may be added ; bearing in mind that too rich a soil makes 

 the shoots too luxuriant, and causes them to gum. The season for 

 potting is September and October, and success is rendered more certain 

 if the trees have been in pots one year before they are forced. While 

 the trees remain out of doors, it is necessary to watch the operations of 

 the sparrows, which are very apt to pick off the buds of cherries in the 

 winter season, probably in search of the eggs or larvae of insects. If 

 the trees potted are standards, they may be set on the ground, or on a 

 low stage ; and if they are dwarfs, upon a higher stage, so as, in either 

 case, to bring their heads within eighteen inches of the glass. They 

 may be set so close together that their heads may be within a few 

 inches of touching each other. 



Time of Commencing to Force. For the first crop shut up the house 

 and begin lighting fires about the middle of December. Proceed 

 cautiously with the temperature, as already indicated. During the 

 whole period of forcing air must be admitted more or less, both during 

 mild nights and by day ; but especially in the daytime and during 

 sunshine. The cherry is most impatient of a stagnant atmosphere. 

 When fine weather prevails at the time the trees are coming into 

 bloom, a comparatively greater heat is required at night than during 

 the day ; because if they are kept cool at night, the heat of the day is 

 apt to expand the flowers before the stalks have grown to their natural 

 length ; and if so, although all the flowers might set (which is not the 

 case when they are short-stalked), it would be impossible for a full 



