Jane 1. 1871. ) 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTaEE AND COTTAGE GARDENEE. 



379 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day 



of 



Month 



Day 



of 



Week. 



Th 



P 



S 



Son 



M 



Tn 



W 



JUNE 1—7, 1871. 



Meeting of Linnean Society, 8 p.m. 



Trinity Sukdat. 



Meeting of Entomological Society, 7 P. 31. 

 Meeting of Zoological Society, 9 P.:J. 

 Royal Horticultui-al Society, Fruit, Floral, 

 [ and General Meeting. 



Average Tempera- 



Kain in 



Sun 



Sun 



Moon 



ture near London. 



43 yeai-a. 



Rises. 



Sets. 



Rises. 



Day. 



Night. 



Mean. 



Days. 



m. h. 



m. h. 



m. h. 



68.4 



45.9 



57.2 



15 



51afB 



4af8 



47af5 



68.9 



45.1 



57.0 



19 



51 8 



5 8 



16 7 



69.4 



44.2 



56.8 



21 



50 3 



6 8 



42 8 



69. S 



44.4 



569 



15 



50 3 



7 8 



59 9 



70.5 



47.3 



68.9 



24 



49 3 



8 8 



11 



69.9 



47.6 



58.8 



22 



48 S 



9 8 



46 11 



69.3 



46.0 



57.9 



26 



47 3 



10 8 



morn. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



h. 

 af 3 

 3 

 3 

 4 

 5 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Days. 

 13 

 14 

 O 

 16 

 17 

 18 

 19 



Clock j Day 

 after of 

 Sun. , Year. 



152 

 153 

 154 

 155 

 156 

 157 

 158 



From observations taken near London during forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 69.4^, and its night tem- 

 perature 45.9'. The greatest heat was 90', on the 5th, 1846 ; and the lowest cold S3°, on the 5th, 1856. The greatest fall of rain was 

 1.02 inch. 



ORCHAED-HOUSE PROSPECTS. 



F these we may now speak confidently, and 

 the numbei- of orchard houses renders the 

 subject interesting. 



The splendid sunshine of last summer, 

 succeeding a year of enforced rest, has made 

 this season one of promise. Out of doors, 

 however, our Peach trees present a compa- 

 ratively miserable appearance, owing to the 

 prevalence of cm-led or blistered leaves 

 where no protection was employed. In the 

 houses I have now most of Mr. Rivers's new Peaches in 

 good numbers, and variously placed and trained. They 

 all look very well indeed. The whole crop is enormous, 

 and had to be thinned several times over. The leaves are 

 very healthy, and there is but little aphis. 



My neighbours complain that they wear out their potted 

 trees in half a dozen seasons, but here are some which, 

 after ten years' steady bearing in pots, have now been five 

 years planted in the borders, and are as fine as ever. The 

 secret is that they are never cropped so heavily as my 

 neighbours' trees are. Two thousand five hundred fine 

 fruits are quite enough for a house 80 feet by 15, and 

 two thousand would have been much better. Of these, 

 one thousand eight hundred were sold in Covent Garden. 

 Still, it must be allowed that it is most profitable in many 

 cases to crop rather heavily year after year, and then to 

 renew the trees. Could we have houses to rest them every 

 third or fourth year, and stimulate them during production, 

 this would even be advisable where large demands were 

 made on the gardener. But this rule is inapplicable to 

 border trees, and these have their peculiar merits, not the 

 least of which, as we all know, is being less dependent 

 on capricious watering. This continuous sunsliine renders 

 abundant water imperative while the foliage is developing 

 and the fruit swelling. 



My old diagonal cordons continue in good health, with 

 the exception of one of them, which commenced exuding 

 gum from about a foot above the collar at no perceptible 

 wound. Many remedies were tried : the exudation broke 

 out a little higher each time, and at last one large spiu- 

 and the shoots on it died ofl'. A succession of tight band- 

 ages with tar between them arrested the flow, and the 

 upward sap has evidently avoided this portion, but there 

 is a general slight ohlorotic character visible in the leaves, 

 and next season will be a test for the veteran, now sixteen 

 years old. I mention this, chiefly because M. Dubreuil 

 considers that the life of the Peach (I presume on the 

 Plum stock) is '-valueless after twenty years." Such 

 might be the case with trees under glass, but when the 

 amount of crops gathered, the locality, training, and sort 

 were all considered, would this rule apply to all Peach 

 trees on the wall also ? At any rate, this would tend to 

 prove that it is safer to have cordons which can be easily 

 replaced, especially when new varieties are so continually 

 appearing. 



, The more we see of orchard-house work the more we 

 must admire its advantages. Looking over a friend's , 



No. 531.— Vol. XX., Ne-w Series. 



house, which I designed for him two seasons ago, I found 

 there a first-rate crop of the best sorts growing in what 

 was formerly a mere back yard, close to the road, and 

 rather enclosed by a north wall. We had to place the 

 orchard house over a Vine border, and immediately in front 

 of the vinery of course This was done by making the 

 orchard house with a short hip of a suitable height, having 

 all the trees, except those in corners, in pots, and arrang- 

 ing so that the gutters of the -vinery could flood the Vine 

 border at pleasure. This watering, however, was found 

 not so necessary after all, and the Grapes have never been 

 so fine before. Thus there is at present in a former back 

 yard, in a narrow space between an old vinery and a north 

 wall, a capital house full of the newest sorts of Peaches 

 and Nectarines, producing for the owner, an invalid, a 

 succession of. the best fruits in the world, refreshing and 

 digestible. With the Grapes, and the Pears and Plums on 

 the walls, this snjall garden, with its croquet lawn, and 

 flowers in cases and conservatories, leaves only Apples 

 and vegetables to be sought for in the markets. 



Such are the advantages of glass, and not the least of 

 them is its application to growing choice Peaches and 

 Nectarines, instead of on open walls. The generality of 

 suburban gardens are like the one in question, and would 

 be best laid out in some such way. — -T. C. Brehaut, 

 Riclimond House, Guernsey. 



THE ORCHARD HOUSE AND ITS COMMUNISTS. 



The late Bishop of Chichester, on the occasion of a 

 dinner given to the Agricultural Society at Oxford, at which 

 he 'being then Vice-Chancellor) presided, in proposing the 

 toast of the evening, " Success to Agriculture," said he 

 supposed the members of the Society, on visiting so learned 

 a University, would expect from him as its representative 

 a speech in Latin ; but that as it was possible that some of 

 them might have forgotten what they had learned at school, 

 he should append to the Latin quotation he was about to 

 offer a literal translation. Cicero, he said, declared, " Niliil 

 est melius agricuUurd." Responsive to the general look 

 calling for an explanation he construed it, " Nothing is 

 better than agriculture," which sentiment elicited loud 

 cries of "hear, hear! ' i^rom all parts of the room. On 

 silence being restored he proceeded, " nihil honestius," "no- 

 thing is more honourable," which, I need hardly say, was 

 uproariously applauded ; and some one delightedly ex- 

 claimed. What will he say next '? Why, ''nihil uhcrius" 

 to be sure, he replied, which means, "nothing is vaore pro- 

 fitable." Loud cries of Bravo ! followed this announce- 

 ment, a jingling of glasses, varied by a growl from one 

 bucolic gentleman that if Mr. What-d'ye-call-him had 

 foreseen the price at which corn was then being sold he 

 never would have committed himself to such an unfounded 

 statement. 



Now, sir, had Cicero lived in our days he would have 

 vastly delighted in orchard-house culture, and, next to agri- 

 cullure, would have justly designated it as good, honour- 

 able, and profitable. Yes, profitable, for if the produce of 

 a well, managed orchard house were to be turned into hard 



No, 1183.— Vol. XLV., Old Sebib . 



