Jnne 29, 1871. ] 



JOUENAIi OF HOETIOULTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDENEE. 



463 



4he afternoon we will enclose all the sun heat we can, so that 

 we shall have a free gathering when our pots are fally exhansted. 



The rains have done much to clean the fruit trees. We find 

 the wood of the Peach trees out of doors is more injured than 

 we expected. This happens so frequently that really it seems 

 next to waste of labour and expense to go on with them on 

 open walls. We could bring to our recollection some scores of 

 places where the Peach trees covered the walls most beautif ally, 

 but one winter greatly injured them, and the next pretty well 

 settled them, and then the renewing process went on, and then 

 in some eight or ten years the same fatal result ensued. We 

 know there are places where the Peach on the open wall rarely 

 suffers, but for many years produces large handsome fruit. 

 But, on the other hand, and that has been our own experience 

 too, we have seen and had as fine Peach walls as were ever 

 looked at, with not 6 inches of brick left uncovered, and we 

 iiave seen the trees on these walls a tew years afterwards perfect 

 wrecks, not worth their room, and entirely owing to the climate, 

 and chiefly the frosts of winter injuring the wood. Hence in 

 most places much north of London it would often be true 

 economy to front a Peach wall with glass, bo as to make an 

 orchard house of it. Done with cheap glass it would soon pay 

 itself in the saving and bother of all protecting material. The 

 carrying oS the extra wet, and the securing of a still atmo- 

 sphere within in the times of severe frost, are the chief elements 

 of safety. 



When trees look very queer out of doors, it is pleasant to 

 look on fine healthy wood, and fruit set like ropes of Onions, 

 with merely a glass protection. Went over the orchard house 

 trees and thinned out and stopped shoots, and thinned still 

 more the fruit now stoning. These houses had been stuiJed 

 and crammed with bedding and other plants, as we had been 

 passing through a period of change, and until these are accom- 

 plished we have had to make the most of what glass protection 

 we could command. Got these houses pretty free now though 

 they look still very thick. We have gathered some fine Elton 

 Cherries on the open wall, but for six weeks we have had a fine 

 supply from pots in the orchard house, that were quite a picture, 

 though the plants have been in the same pots for many years, 

 and to save waterings have been plunged nearly to their rims, 

 and have been frequently mulched, as that, too, saves watering. 

 The Cherries have been uniformly good, and they bear heavily 

 in pots. We have also had wonderful crops of Plums, but this 

 season they are nothing remarkable, and chiefly our own fault, 

 for if we had cut away the half of the crop last year, it still 

 would have been an ample and heavy one. Oh ! that we could 

 thin enough and in time. In our Peach house we have had a 

 fair crop, but we did not require to thin. The blooms in the 

 Peach house had scarcely two hours' sun on them altogether, 

 and the setting in consequence was imperfect. In the orchard 

 house, on the contrary, the bloom rejoiced in extra sunshine, 

 and pretty well every bloom on trees on the back wall, and in 

 pots in front set. 



The thinning alluded to above is the third, as it is as well 

 motto go to an extreme before the stoning is perfected. It is 

 unwise, on the other hand, to leave all the thinning until then. 

 Some of our keen amateur friends have done so, and they have 

 had in consequence no trouble in thinning, the most of the 

 crop dropped at the stoning process. We have rarely had a 

 fruit drop, and that from thinning early and by degrees, In 

 some Peaches that do not set very freely we have found it im- 

 portant to thin out the weakest and side-placed blossoms, and 

 then the others set well. To prevent Peaches and Nectarines 

 dropping at the stoning and second swelling process, it is well 

 to thin considerably before stoning, but still to leave enough to 

 thin more after the stoning is effected. As instanced above, the 

 thinning is not always required. We do not think we took 

 above two or three score of sound fruit out of the early Peach 

 house, and yet on the whole the trees carried pretty well as 

 much as they ought. We would rather thin freely, however, 

 than have a deficient crop. We have sometimes thought that 

 in early Peach houses the trees knew our weak point for quan- 

 tity so well, that they just set and swelled little more than was 

 necessary. 



But we will return to the orchard houses. The mere thin- 

 ning of the fruit is not everything, so as to secure free swelling 

 and prevent dropping ; much of that will depend also on extra 

 dryness and extra wetness. We have known the most of the 

 fruit in a house drop its fruit at and after the stoning process, 

 not because too many fruit had been left, but because with a 

 damp surface the ground at the roots was very dry. We 

 have known similar results take place when after such dryness 



a great drenching has at once been given. In the one case tha 

 roots and fruit were starved ; in the other case the extra 

 nourishment was more than the tree could at once appropriate, 

 and the glut, as it were, threw the fruit off. 



The chief remedies against dropping fruit and dropping 

 buds are, first, by ample drainage to prevent stagnant water, 

 and then as soon as the buds show signs of moving in tha 

 spring never to allow the roots to be dry. It is often necessary 

 to have the soil pretty dry in the autumn and the first winter 

 months to secure due and full ripening of the wood ; but this 

 attained, many fruit trees in pots and borders drop their fruit 

 buds in spring for want of the necessary moisture at the roots. 

 The cultivator should never be satisfied with surface-appear- 

 ances, but use his fingers and a pointed stick to see the state 

 of the soil beneath. If the soil prove dry it is best to moisten 

 by degrees, so as to take a week or so in the process. When 

 the roots in pots are dry to the bottom, it is a good plan to 

 make half a dozen holes with a small wire, and then water 

 moderately at a time until the moisture percolates through the 

 whole. If the plants are growing in the soil it is well to water 

 thoroughly a portion at a time. These precautions will greatly 

 help against dropping buds and falling fruit. Clearing out 

 fiowering pot plants from the orchard house enabled us, after 

 moving the surface soil just the least with the points of a fork, 

 to throw a little superphosphate and soot over the ground for 

 a width of 3 feet, and then give that a good watering with weak 

 sewage. In about a week we shall give a good watering to 

 another 3 feet. This plan we consider safer, at a critical 

 period, than soaking the whole border and roots at once. When 

 once the fruit is taking its second swelling kindly there is then 

 less danger from a good watering all over, and if the drainage 

 will prevent stagnant water there is no great danger of over- 

 watering until the fruit is approaching maturity. 



Peach House. — Not wishing to have a glut, and to keep the 

 fruit for use as long as possible, we gave up all firing as soon 

 as the weather got warmer, and left air on night and day. The 

 fruit has a deeper colour and a richer flavour when thus ripened. 

 One of the prettiest sights we ever saw was at Ashridge last 

 year. The trees were trained beneath the slope of a lean-to 

 roof. Every fruit was fully exposed and all the hghts removed. 

 Not a fruit seemed to be touched, but we noticed no birds 

 about. In similar circumstances here we should not have ex- 

 pected to find one unpicked fruit after the first twenty-four 

 hours. If we had left our front ventilators of the orchard 

 house open we would soon have had no trouble in gathering 

 Cherries. Birds very rarely venture through our open top 

 ventilators. Eats will cunningly climb the wall and so enter, 

 and go out the same way after they have done the mischief. 



Vines in the orchard house have set pretty fairly, but not so 

 well in such dull weather as if they had been privileged with 

 more sun, so as to give a higher temperature. For unheated 

 orchard houses the earlier kinds should chiefly be used. Hoping 

 to have the place heated, we had planted some Yines of Lady 

 Downes', but it was all we could do to get them to ripen well 

 last year. They like a good heat to set freely. These Vines 

 having but little earth room had a good rich watering, and 

 Vines in vineries planted against back walls, &c., were treated 

 with the same. The Vines have had no syringing, and in the 

 late dull weather very little water has been sprinkled on paths 

 or stages. When bright weather comes more water will be 

 sprinkled on paths to promote a moister atmosphere. 



OBNAMENTAL DEPAETMENT. 



The work was very much a continuance of that of last week. 

 We are an unsatisfied set of grumblers. Last season we com- 

 plained of the want of wet, and now we are apt to think the 

 grass grows sadly too fast for us. No weather could be better 

 for all fresh-planted trees and shrubs. We cannot but sympa- 

 thise with those who have great breadths of grass cut, and 

 which will be much injured for hay. All planting in field and 

 garden with the dibber could be done pretty well where the soil 

 did not stick to the feet. Where planting with the trowel must 

 be resorted to, we prefer waiting until the soil is drier. Plants 

 never thrive so well when planted in cloggy soil. We hope, 

 however, soon to get all our bedding plants, including Coleus, 

 ifec, out. The cloggy soil has alone prevented us. We will 

 then go a-head with potting, &c. — E. F. 



TRADE CATALOGUE KECEIVED. 



Thomas S. Ware, Hale Farm Nurseries, Tottenham, London, N. — 

 Catalogue of Perennials, including Serbaceovs, Bulbous, and Tuberous 

 Plants. 



