ORCHARD HOUSES. 



297 



certain amount of artificial heat is necessary, in order to 

 get the fruit much in advance of what it would be out 

 of doors. 



Varieties of Trees. The peach, nectarine, apricot, plum, 

 and cherry are the fruits for which the orchard-house may 

 be said to have been specially designed, and if the house 

 be small, they alone should occupy it. Large houses will, 

 of course, give room for the pear and apple, for the fig, 

 orange, etc. 



It is not absolutely necessary that the varieties be 



Fig. 147. SPAN-ROOF ORCHARD-HOUSE. 



worked on stocks as dwarfs, but when such can be had, 

 the peach and nectarine on the plum, and the cherry on 

 the mahaleb, will be found to assist toward early maturity, 

 and the compressed artificial growth which the restricted 

 limits of this mode of culture command. 



Trees in Tubs or Pots. The first orchard-house grow- 

 ing of trees was in pots, but we have found in practice 

 that boxes of about fifteen inches diameter at top, ten 

 inches at bottom, and twenty inches deep, with the bot- 

 tom board set an inch or more above the side pieces (see 

 fig. 149), and with holes for drainage, gave us better stow- 

 age when we desired to pack away the trees for winter, 

 and were also less liable to accident and injury, which 

 sometimes occur from breaking of pots. It has been 

 asserted that the porous nature of the pots was an advan- 

 tage, but we found success in the boxes, as do hundreds of 

 13* 



