486 CHERRY FORCING IN BRITISH GARDENS. 



in the day, during sunshine, and when abundance of air is given. 

 After the fruit is ripe, water should be withheld till it is gathered. In 

 every stage of the progress of the cherry in a forcing-house, the plants 

 may be watered with liquid manure, which is found to strengthen their 

 leaves and buds without injuring the flavour of the fruit. 



Treatment of the Plants in Pots after they are taken out of the House. 

 Immediately after the crop is gathered the trees should be taken to a 

 cool, rather shady situation, set on the ground, and the pots surrounded 

 up to the rim with rotten tan, sawdust, or any similar materials, to 

 keep them cool, and in an equable degree of moisture. If, on the 

 other hand, a second crop of cherries should be wanted late in autumn, 

 the soil in the pots should be allowed to be quite dry for a month ; 

 and, by afterwards watering it freely, and placing the trees in the house 

 about the end of August, and treating them in the same manner as 

 was done in early spring, they will ripen their fruit in October or 

 November. Such trees, however, will not be again fit to force for two 

 or three years to come ; and they should, therefore, be turned out of 

 the pots into the free soil, and allowed at least two years to recover 

 themselves, when they may be again re-potted and forced. While in 

 the open ground, all the blossoms produced should be picked off as 

 soon as they appear, to prevent them from weakening the trees. In 

 the cherry, as in most trees that produce their blossoms on the wood of 

 the preceding year, or on spurs, the blossom-buds expand first, and 

 next the barren or wood-buds. The latter continue growing till the 

 petals of the flowers drop oif, when they receive a check, and scarcely 

 grow at all, till the fruit is set and begins to swell ; after which they 

 grow rapidly, and complete the shoots of the year, by the time the 

 fruit is stoned. 



To have a constant succession of cherries from the middle of March 

 till July, as soon as the trees of one house have come into blossom, 

 those of the next should have artificial heat applied, and the tempera- 

 ture and management will be in every case the same as that which has 

 been above described. It may be observed here, that cherry-houses, 

 with the trees planted in the ground, are much less suitable, not only 

 f\ r early forcing, but for main and late crops, than cherry-trees grown 

 in pots. The cherry cannot, like the peach and nectarine, be forced 

 for a number of years together ; and hence, as a house in which the 

 trees are planted in the ground must, every three or four years, have 

 a season of rest, the house during that season, having the sashes taken 

 off, is in a great measure of no use. (See 'Gard. Mag.,' vol. xiv. p. 41.) 



Forcing Cherries by a Temporary Structure. Where a portion of 

 wall (especially with a southern aspect), already well furnished with 

 cherries, perfectly established, and in a bearing state, can be spared 

 for forcing, a temporary glass case may be put up against it ; the flue 

 may be built on the surface of the border, without digging or sinking 

 for a foundation; neither will any upright glass or front wall be 

 requisite ; the wooden plate on which the lower ends of the rafters are 

 to rest may be supported by piles, sunk or driven into the soil of the 

 border, one pile under every, or every alternate, rafter. The space 



