472 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



that a fair crop of Greengages, away from walls, is realized but three years 

 out of seven, even in the south of England, but two years out of seven in 

 the midland counties, and seldom or never in Yorkshire. Now I propose 

 that for those who wish to grow a crop of plums regularly, and yet not in- 

 cur a heavy expense, rough-built lean-to orchard houses should be erected 

 in some corner of the premises, so as not to be obnoxious to the eye, of 

 larch poles, rough half-inch boards, with two or three sliding shutters for 

 ventilation ; in fact, merely a glass-roofed shed on purpose for plum trees in 

 pots while in blossom and setting their fruit. It is surprising with what 

 vigor and beauty plum trees blossom even in the rudest glass structures, 

 and as the trees need not remain in the house longer than the end of the 

 first week in June, when all danger of severe spring frosts is over, they 

 may be placed close together, so that a house 20 feet by 12, with a path in 

 its centre, will hold 96 trees, 48 on each border. The trees may be potted 

 into 13 or 15 inch pots, and treated exactly as recommended for other or- 

 chard house trees ; with this difference — all the trees with their young fruit 

 on should be removed from the house on the 7th June, and placed in rows 

 or otherwise in the garden to ripen their fruit in the open air. The pots 

 may be plunged in the soil to the extent of one third, but not more ; for if 

 the roots are too cold, the fruit will suffer in flavor, and if the soil be wet 

 and cold, it should be drained or made porous, so that the water passes from 

 the pots rapidly, and the top-diessing of manure must be most abundant. 

 As I have before stated, the very late plums must be ripened under glass ;" 

 but all the varieties that ripen in the open air before the end of September 

 may be grown in great perfection in this way, and regular annual crops 

 insured, if care is taken to thin the fruit properly, for if too large a crop is 

 extorted, the tree will have a year's rest. It is quite astonishing how pro- 

 lific these bushes become in a few years, and by merely pinching off the 

 ends of exuberant shoots, about the end of June, to within three or four 

 inches of their bases, they soon form themselves into compact round-headed 

 trees, quite as ornamental as orange trees in pots and tubs, and far more 

 gratifying as regards utility ; for one would not like to place a dish of Eng- 

 lish oranges, cultivated as they are at present, before one's friends ; but 

 English Greengages are always acceptable." 



In the views entertained by Mr. Rivers concerning the ripening of tropi- 

 cal fruit trees in heated orchard houses, we cannot concur without consid- 

 erable qualification. In the first place, very few tropical fruits are worth 

 cultivating ; in the next place, few are cultivable. Mr. Rivers himself says : 

 " An orchard house for tropical fruits has long been with me a favorite idea, 

 and recently, from my having had a daughter return from a nearly two 

 years' residence in the West Indies, it has received a fresh stimulus. The 

 variety of tropical fruits seems almost endless ; some of them, if I may 

 judge from description, are too rich, others too insipid for English palates, 

 and of the greater part the trees that bear them would require a house far 

 beyond the means of the amateur not blessed with a large fortune." That 

 is very like the fact. What are not too big are worthless ; what are good 

 are too big. The cherimoyer is as tall as a large pear tree ; guavas, sapo- 



