ORCHARD HOUSE. 



348 



ORCHARD HOUSES. 



FIG. 9. MODE OF 

 FIXING VENTI- 

 LATOR WHEN 

 OPEN. 



viously described, and should be chosen in 

 preference to the latter if space will admit. 

 The borders in such a structure as the 

 span-roofed house just described need not 

 be raised, nor the path sunk, exc, pt as a 

 matter of choice ; they should nave a 

 dressing of manure and sand, or manure 

 and burnt soil, or any 

 loose material well forked 

 over, and mixed with a 

 dressing to the depth of 

 6 inches, composed of the 

 top spit of a pasture of 

 tenacious loamy soil, 

 which has been exposed 

 to the air for the summer 

 months, mixed with one- 

 third of well-rotted manure, 

 chopped up into lumps 

 as big as an egg. In the border thus 

 composed two rows of trees may be placed ; 

 the front row 3 feet apart, the second being 

 in the rear, zigzag fashion, but half way 

 between, so that they are each 3 feet from 

 stem to stem, and none shading the other. 

 Such a house as this, without artificial 

 heat, is intended for protection only, and 

 not for forcing ; but oranges and camellias 

 might be grown with success in it, if the 

 house could be heated in very severe 

 weather so as to prevent it falling at any 

 time below 26. The heating, however, 

 would be absolutely necessary for the 

 oranges only, as camellias will grow and 

 bloom satisfactorily in the open air, being 

 hardy and as suitable for outdoor culture 

 as for greenhouses. The most severe 

 frost would not injure tea-scented roses so 

 sheltered ; but the house is essentially 

 intended for the protection of fruit-trees, 

 whether planted in the borders or in pots, 

 and has the effect of bringing us, without 

 artificial heat, to the temperature of Angers, 

 in the south of France, where the royal 

 muscadine grape usually ripens in the open 

 air on the 25th of August. 



Orchard Houses, Mode of Cul- 

 ture in. 



The use to which lean-to structures may 

 be put with good effect is the culture of 

 peaches, vines, and figs, in pots. Selecting 

 a straight-stemmed maiden peach or nec- 

 tarine, well furnished with lateral buds, 

 and not more than three or four feet high, 

 it is planted in an n-inch pot, and each 

 lateral shoot is cut into two buds. As 

 soon as the shoots have made three leaves, 

 the third is pinched off, leaving two, not 

 reckoning, however, one or two small 

 aves generally found at the base of each 

 shoot. These pinched shoots soon put 

 forth a fresh crop of buds, each of which, 

 and all succeeding ones, must be pinched 

 off to one leaf as soon as two or three 

 leaves are formed. 



This incessant pinching oft the shoots 

 of a potted pyramid tree, in the climate of 

 an orchard house, will, in one season, form 

 a compact cypress-like tree, crowded with 

 short fruit spurs. In spring these will 

 require to be thinned, and every season 

 the shoots will require to be pinched off 

 as above described. 



Dwarf pyramidal peach and nectarine 

 trees may also be planted in the border, two 



FIG. 10. BRADDING IN PANES IN GLAZING 

 WITHOUT PUTTY. 



feet apart, with excellent results. They re- 

 quire the same incessant pinching, and must 

 be lifted and 1 eplanted annually in October ; 

 but the span-roofed house is better adapted 



