OCTOBER. 471 



Mr. George W. Pratt was one of the principal amateurs as 

 long ago as the formation of the Massachusetts HorticuUural 

 Society in 1830, and the contributions of flowers which he 

 made from his father's garden were among the rarest and best 

 that were seen at that time. He still takes great interest in 

 pilants, and has aided in making up the collection which fills 

 the new greenhouse and stove. 



@nural "^aiitts. 



Orchard Houses. — That orchard houses answer their purpose under 

 good management is sufficiently proved by the numbers that are springing 

 up all over the country. They were wanted. With our deteriorated springs 

 the acquisition of a fruit crop had become too much a matter of chance, and 

 with the chances against us. An amateur struggling with cold earth in 

 spring and hailstorms in May was like a gambler playing against the bank ; 

 he might win, but was sure to come off, in the long run, a heavy loser. 

 Orchard houses put the small grower at his ease as to a crop, and furnish 

 him with much amusement into the bargain. It is something to be able to 

 watch the expanding flowers and mark their setting, and assist at their first 

 attempts at swelling into ripeness without the probability of catching a ca- 

 tarrh ; it is more to feel that whatever time, patience, and money are ex- 

 pended will be certain to bring their reward. 



For this we have to thank Mr. Rivers. His book, the " Orchard House," 

 was soon made an amateur's guide, and notwithstanding failures here and 

 there, arising from negligence, ignorance, or inexperience, steadily main- 

 tained its ground. We therefore see with no surprise that a fourth edition 

 has been called for. It is a compliment for the author to be proud of; for 

 it is a public acknowledgment of valuable advice and instruction having 

 been rendered. In the present edition two new topics are introduced ; one 

 the cultivation of plums in such houses ; the other a recommendation to 

 apply the method to tropical fruit trees. 



To the first of these proposals we heartily accede. The crops of plums 

 obtained last year in the orchard house in the Horticultural Society's Gar- 

 den were abundant and excellent, while unprotected trees yielded little or 

 nothing. A reference to our columns of 1855, page 612, will show that 

 Denniston's Superb, Huling's Superb, Reine Claude de Bavay, and a late 

 plum without a name, were the gems of the remarkable exhibition there 

 described. Upon this point Mr. Rivers makes the following new statement : 



" It is well known that plum trees in our climate bloom so early in spring 

 as rarely to escape the effects of spring frosts ; it may safely be asserted 



