as practised at Hylands. 



393 



abundance of air is givenday and night, and some water to the 

 roots to settle the earth about them. The branches are fre- 

 quently sprinkled with water by means of a hand syringe. The 

 sashes are covered every night with reeds; shaded during bright 

 sunshine with branches of beech or spruce, or with pea-sticks ; 

 and, when severe weather sets in, a thick lining of leaves is 

 formed round the back and sides of the pit {Jig. 139. I), and 

 over the roots (m), not for the purpose of producing heat, 

 but of keeping in what is already there. Not more than one 

 tree is put to forcing at one time ; because, the produce being 

 all ripe at once, and not of a nature to keep long, it is found 

 better to put them into forcing, so as to procure successional 

 supplies from one tree at a time. The first tree is generally 

 put down as soon as the leaves drop in November or Decem- 

 ber, and one every ten days afterwards till the beginning of 

 January, observing to fill the divisions alternately with the 

 first planted trees, in order that the succeeding trees may 

 always act as linings to those which have preceded them. 

 Thus a pit for twelve trees (Jig. 141.) would be planted in 



J ? 



02 



Ji 



10 



9 



3 



7 



6 



5 



4 



- 



2 



1 



1 











1 



41 













! 



the order, 2. 4. 6. 8. 10. 12., 1. 3. 5. 7. 9. 11. 13. From 

 trees which cover 10 square feet, Mr. Nieman has gathered 

 150 fruit. His first apricots are generally ripe in the end of 

 April, or beginning of May ; his first peaches or nectarines 

 in the second week of May ; and he has a succession of both 

 till the fruit of the trees on the open wall come into use. 



Scarcely any pruning is given to the trees when they are 

 tied to the trellis, and no extraordinary care is taken with 

 their roots in taking them from the wall. Mr. Nieman has had 

 a full crop from trees which have been planted with only three 

 large stumps, and scarcely any fibres ; such stumps, however, 

 in the rich mould, warmed through the boarded partition by 

 the dung in the pit, produce fibres, which, in the course of 

 the season, attain the thickness of the finger, and many feet 

 in length. When the leaves drop from the trees, the latter 

 are removed, and replaced against the wall in the room of 

 others taken to the forcing-pit. Thus, all the trees of a peach 

 wall are taken to the pit and forced in rotation, and this occa- 

 sional removal is found of advantage to them by moderating 

 the vigour of their shoots. 



The simplicity, economy, and especially the certainty, of 

 this plan of forcing, very strongly recommend it. The dung 



