232 



HORTICULTURE. 



Fruit 

 Garden. 



Pcnch- 

 housc. 



Cherry- 

 louse. 



ing is practised, by sprinkling water on the surface of 

 the warm flues. After this, washing the foliage with 

 the garden engine is found very conducive to the health 

 of the plants. When the stones of the fruit are formed, 

 the temperature is raised to about 60, and the crop is 

 thinned, if thought necessary. Water is now liberally 

 applied to the border. After May, little fire-heat is 

 given, and air is very freely admitted through the day. 



Mr Knight strongly recommends the exposing the 

 fruit, when ripening, to the full influence of the sun in 

 warm and bright days, and covering it with the glass 

 roof during cold night air or rains. He has, in the 

 London Horticultural Transactions, vol. i. p. 199, de- 

 scribed an improved peach-house. The angle of the 

 roof is only 28 in Lat. 52. In order that the lights 

 may be moved to the required extent with facility, they 

 are made short, and divided in the middle. The back 

 wall does not exceed nine feet high. Two rows of 

 'trees are planted ; one in front, trained on an almost 

 horizontal or very slightly inclined trellis; and the 

 other on the back wall. The house is 50 feet long, 

 but commanded by a single furnace. 



The usual displacing of useless buds and spray, and 

 laying in of new shoots, are operations which must, of 

 course, be attended to, as in the management of peach 

 and nectarine trees on the open wall. 



Some of the best fruits for the peach-house are, the red 

 magdalen, the white magdalen, royal George, noblesse, 

 late mignone, early Newington, teton de Venus, and Ca- 

 therine peaches; and of the nectarines, the Newington, 

 the red Roman, and the violet. But all the kinds former, 

 ly mentioned 88. are occasionally placed in the peach- 

 house. 



The Cherry-house. 



205. The cherry-house, if one furnace only be em- 

 ployed, is nearly of the dimensions mentioned for the 

 peach-house. The cherry-house is always considered 

 and managed as a forcing-house. There is commonly 

 a glass front between two and three feet high ; thus 

 giving room in the fore-part of the border, for some dwarf 

 trees, either cherry or fig, or perhaps apricot ; the prin- 

 cipal cherry-trees being trained against a trellis in the 

 back wall. The flue along the front and at each end, 

 is covered with a small horizontal grate or trellis of 

 wood, and on this pots of strawberries or of kidney- 

 beans are forced. For the dwarf trees in front, such 

 as have been kept in pots or tubs for some time, are to 

 be preferred. Forcing in the cherry-house is usually 

 begun about the new-year ; but for a month before the 

 fire is lighted, the house is shut at night, so as gradual- 

 ly to accustom the plants to the confined air and in- 

 creased temperature. At first the temperature is kept 

 at 40. Till the flower-buds appear, air is admitted, in 

 the day-time, freely ; but after this, till the season be- 

 come mild, with great caution by the upper sashes 

 only. When the fruit is setting, in the beginning of 

 March, the temperature is kept as steadily as possible 

 about 50. After it is set, water is given plentifully at the 

 root, and also dashed over the foliage, and air is freely 

 admitted when the weather will permit. When the 

 fruit is colouring, little water is given, the temperature 

 is raised, and as much air as possible is given. When 

 the crop is gathered, the house is generally thrown 

 quite open ; in many cases, even the glass-roof is taken 

 off. By much the best cherry for forcing is the com- 

 mon Mayduke. 



206. Tie kinds of strawberries preferred for forcing, 



are the scarlet, the alpine, and wood strawberry. The Fruit 

 plants undergo a course of preparation for a year before Garden. 

 they be forced. They should always be taken from 

 the most fruitful plants ; and the offsets nearest to the 

 parent plant are to be preferred. During the first sum- 

 mer, they are not only regularly deprived of all run- 

 ners as they appear, but the flowers are also picked off: 

 vigorous plants, filling the pots, are thus secured for 

 fruiting in the following spring. If the fruit be wanted 

 very early, the plants are placed in a hot-bed frame in 

 the end of October, and there brought to flower, be- 

 ing transferred to the forcing-house when the furnace 

 is set agoing. They generally yield ripe fruit early 

 in March, and continue to afford successive gatherings 

 till the end of April, making a pleasing appearance at 

 this season, and a rich addition to the spring dessert. 

 Water is pretty liberally supplied till the fruit begin to 

 ripen, when it is given sparingly. It may here be re- 

 marked, that if strawberry plants which have been pre- 

 pared as for forcing, be planted in front of a hot-wall, 

 they can scarcely fail to ripen fruit early in May. 



207. Of kidney-beans the best kind for forcing, is', 

 the early speckled dwarf. The beans are sown, in small 

 pots, (called 24's or 16's,) in any sort of light rich 

 earth, three beans in each, and placed in the house 

 when fire-heat is begun. As they advance, they re- 

 quire frequent watering, and as much air as circum- 

 stances will permit. The pods should be gathered 

 when rather young, as in this way the plants continue 

 longer to yield them. 



The Finery or Grape-house. 



208. A vinery with two furnaces is generally fifty vinerr, 

 feet in length, and fourteen or fifteen in width within ; 



the height of the back wall being ten or twelve feet, 

 and of the parapet about eighteen inches. When one 

 furnace only is employed, the length of the house 

 should never exceed thirty or thirty-five feet. The 

 parapet wall is generally supported on small arches or 

 lintels, as already described in the peach-house, so that 

 the vines, which are planted inside the house, may 

 send abroad their roots in search of suitable nourish- 

 ment. Sometimes the vines are planted without, and 

 introduced through slanting apertures. 



209. Very commonly the roof is formed of sashes, 

 which can be let down for the admission of air. In a 

 grape-house described by Mr Knight, (Horl. Trans. 

 Land. vol. i. p. 100,) the air is admitted at the ends, 

 where all the sashes are made to slide ; a free current 

 may thus be made to pass through the house. Besides, 

 about four feet of the upper end of every third light 

 of the roof is made to lift up, being attached by hinges 

 to the wood- work on the top of the back- wall ; and in 

 this way, air is given in hot and calm weather, with- 

 out any additional shade. Here it may be remarked, 

 with great submission to that eminent horticulturist, 

 that currents of air are seldom wanted in hot-houses ; 

 they often indeed prove hurtful. To give air, there- 

 fore, principally by means of currents seems not a good 

 plan ; for the small openings in the roof are not likely 

 to be able to counteract the rush of cold air at the ends. 

 In giving air to vines, it is of great importance to have 

 a free and soft circulation : this will prove highly sa- 

 lubrious to the plants, while, in the same temperature 

 of the atmosphere, a current would be hurtful. 



210. In planting a new grape-house the young vines 

 are put in, in February or March, and little or no fire 

 heat is given : they make strong shoots the first year, 



