1 64 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



houses, with a late one in which no fire-heat is used 

 beyond what is necessary to protect the trees from 

 frosts or to ripen the wood in autumn, keep up a 

 long succession of peaches when the selection of va- 

 rieties is made to this end. In the case of young 

 or newly-planted trees that have not been accustomed 

 to early forcing, February is sufficiently early to be- 

 gin to force them the first year. The second they 

 may be started a month earlier. By beginning a 

 few weeks earlier every year, they can be worked 

 round to start at any time within the limits of what 

 is practicable, much more safely than by beginning 

 them very early the first and second years. It may 

 be said of plants and trees in this respect that " use 

 is second nature ; " for unless violently pushed they 

 will have their period of repose, and the peach most 

 particularly should never be subject to hard forcing. 



DRESSING THE TREES AND BORDERS. 



Let it be supposed that the earliest trees have 

 been pruned, and the woodwork and glass of the house 

 thoroughly cleansed. If there has been any red- 

 spider about the trees the previous season, let the 

 whole of them be first washed by means of a hair- 

 brush and soft water, in which about an ounce of 

 soft-soap to every gallon has been mixed. After the 

 trees are dry, coat them over with a mixture of 

 sulphur, cow -dung, and soot, in equal proportions, 

 and reduced to the consistency of thick paint with 

 hot water. To a gallon of this add 2 oz. of soft- 

 soap. In painting the trees over with this, care 

 should be taken always to draw the brush upwards 

 towards the points of the shoots, to prevent the pro- 



