rbo THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



of affording the top and bottom heat should be efficient and completely under control. 

 For atmospheric heat, hot -water pipes are essential. 



A fermenting bed made of oak or beech leaves, with a sufficiency of tan on the 

 surface to plunge the pots in, answers for bottom heat. The pit should be 4J feet 

 deep for succession and 6 feet for fruiting plants, and the leaves moderately moist. It 

 is scarcely possible to put them together too firmly, and they should be allowed to settle 

 before the tan is placed on the surface ; it should not be less than 1 foot deep for 

 succession and 18 inches for fruiting plants. The customary times for forming and 

 renewing the beds are in autumn or spring, or when the plants are disturbed for potting 

 or starting. Tanner's bark, turned and sweetened, may be used instead of leaves, and 

 in this case the pits may be 18 inches less in depth. 



A hot-air chamber is preferred for ease and regularity of temperature. The chamber 

 should be 12 to 18 inches in depth, with the hot- water pipes fixed clear of the floor and 

 the covers slate or stone slabs with open joints. Over these slabs 18 inches' depth of tan 

 is necessary for plunging the pots of succession and 2 feet of fruiting plants, but more in 

 each case rather than less, as there will then be sufficient warmth for a time without 

 heating the pipes. Cocoanut-fibre refuse or other plunging material may be used of 

 sufficient depth for the pots, and the requisite temperature will be maintained if there 

 is a properly heated chamber. When the plants are grown in the beds, some rubble 

 is first placed in, then a thin layer of turves, and over all about 10 inches' depth of 

 soil for planting in. 



Suckers should stand clear of each other until they are rooted and ready for a shift 

 into larger pots. They then become succession plants and require space according to 

 their size; 18 inches suffice for Queens, but robust-growing varieties should be placed 

 2 feet apart. Fruiting plants will be accommodated at 2 feet for such varieties as the 

 Queen and Enville, but strong- growing sorts, such as White Providence, require 2| feet 

 distance every way. Always place the tall and robust-growing plants at the back of 

 a lean-to or in the middle of the central bed of a span roof, and each succeeding row 

 graduating to the front or sides. 



The space required to produce a certain number of fruits annually may be easily 

 calculated from the foregoing. Allowance must be made in all cases for casualties 

 about one-sixth more plants being started as suckers than the number of fruits expected. 

 To produce a hundred fruits annually one hundred and twenty-six suckers should be 

 started each year. These require a nursing-house, Fig. 44, E or F outline, with a 



