434 Transactions of the Prussian Gardening Society. 



tree before its natural winter sleep.''" To make certain that a 

 tree has been put to rest before proceeding to force it, we must 

 expose it for a few days to a frost of from 4° to 8° of Reau- 

 mur (23° to 14° of Fahrenheit) in the open air. After this 

 the tree may be brought into the forcing-house, and heat may 

 be applied to it. This may generally be done in the month 

 of December. It sometimes happens, however, that there is 

 no frost before the end of this month ; and, in that case, it is 

 advisable to keep the tree in the open air, and perfectly dry, 

 till January, before bringing it into the forcing-house. " Dur- 

 ing the last thirty years, I have made a great variety of expe- 

 riments with forcing all kinds of fruit trees : the following 

 one taught me a useful lesson : — I had a box made 6 ft. long, 

 4 ft. broad, and 3 ft. deep ; I filled it with leaves, fresh horse- 

 dung, and old tan, partly for the purpose of facilitating the heat- 

 ing of the house and the saving of fuel, and partly to enable 

 me to expose the tops of the trees to the open air, by placing 

 the pots which contained them upon the warm box, and thus 

 heating their roots without forcing their tops. My object was 

 to promote vegetation before waiting for the December frosts. 

 After the trees had been exposed in this way for a short time, 

 I shut up the house, and began lighting fires. I found, how- 

 ever, that very few of the buds expanded and blossomed, and 

 that most of them absolutely opened later than those in the 

 open air. From this experiment I derived the very useful 

 lesson, of the necessity of setting trees completely to rest 



before beginning; to force them. This resting; of trees I dis- 

 cs o o 



covered to be a law of nature, which, like other natural laws, 

 is not to be broken with impunity." 



Cherry-forcing may be divided into four periods : 1. From 

 the commencement to the opening of the blossom ; 2. The 

 blossoming season ; 3. The stoning season ; and 4. From the 

 stoning to the ripening. 



1. From the Commencement of Forcing till the Blossoms begin 

 to expand. — Supposing the time of commencement to be Ja- 

 nuary, then, according to the principle of imitating nature, 

 the temperature of the open air in March must be commenced 

 with, and, towards the end of the month, the heat raised to 

 the temperature of the open air in April. In cloudy weather 

 rather diminish, and in clear weather rather increase, the usual 

 temperature. Watering the roots of the trees once a fortnight 

 will be sufficient, but the tops should be frequently sprinkled; 

 and, in order that the water which falls down may not render 

 the ground too wet, every pot or box should be covered with 

 a piece of oil cloth. The temperature of the water, both for 



