THK ORCHARD-HOUSE. 



237 



will 1)6 produced without the aid of fire-heat. Indeed 

 it is questionable if fire-heat is not injurious after the 

 blossoms have set and the fruit begins to swell. The 

 soU which suits Pears on the Quince stock is a 

 sound, sandy loam, with a little burnt earth or lime 

 rubble added, to keep it sweet and pervious to water 

 after it is firmly rammed into the pots. Some add 

 rotten manure, but unless the soU is naturally poor 

 and hungry, it answers best when applied as a 

 mulching at short intervals throughout the growing 

 season. 



The Pear being a free liver, it should have an 

 abundance of water at all times, and good diluted 

 liquid during the time it is swelling oflt its fruit ; 

 moreover in dry, warm localities, the pots should be 

 partially plunged in the beds, not so much to econo- 

 mise the use of this element as to prevent the roots 

 from being baked in hot seasons. 



There is now an excellent pot made by Mr. 

 ilatthews, of Weston-super-Mare, with numerous 

 holes in the sides, which is well adapted for fi-uit- 

 trees which require plunging through the summer 

 months. 



The roots of the Quince being fine, they do not 

 hasten to escape like those of the stocks used for 

 roaches and Plums, but the facilities which these 

 perforations seem to give, and the impossibility of 

 the roots becoming water-logged, result in con- 

 ditions highly favourable to the production of very 

 fine fruit, as the trees cannot easily get out of order. 

 In course of time they may require re-potting or 

 shifting into larger pots or tubs; but when well 

 managed, a ti-ee will remain fruitful for many years 

 in a fourteen-inch pot. 



The mode of manipulating the summer growths is 

 bound up in the usual term — ^incessant pinching from 

 the time the trees get into free growth until the end 

 of July, when, unless the localitj" is cold and wet, 

 relief may be given to the other occupants of the 

 house by removing them to a vrarm, sunny place in 

 the open air to ripen up their fruit. 



"UTiere those fine old sorts. Brown Beurre. Passe 

 Cobnar, and Glout Morceau never attain their full size 

 and quality on open walls, a rough, cheap orchard or 

 Pear house will be found one of the most profitable 

 structures imaginable. Provision for abundant venti- 

 lation is imperative, and the means of supplying 

 gentle warmth will insure a good set of fruit in un- 

 favomivble seasons, when, owing to the continued 

 absence of sun, or the presence of too much cold 

 moisture, the petals of the flowers are liable to damp, 

 and the pollen does not ripen and become fit for its 

 office ; at all other times fire-heat is a dangerous 

 snperfluitv. 



It is hardly necessary to say that the best-proved 

 kinds only should be grown in quantity, while newer 



kinds can be speedily tested, and multiplied if found 

 worthy companions to the following varieties : — 



1. Williams's Boncltr^tien. 



2. Beurre d'Amaulis. 



3. Beurre Superfin. 



4. Louise Bonne of Jersey. 



5. Ghmsel's Bergamot. 



6. Thompson's. 



7. Brown Beurre. 



8. Marie Louise. 



9. Gloat Morceau. 



10. Pitmaston Duchesse. 



11. Doyenne du Cornice. 



12. Beiure d'Aremberg. 



13. Passe Golmar. 



14. Winter Nells. 



15. Josephine de Malines. 



16. Prince of Wales 



(Huyshe). 



17. Knight's Monarch. 



18. Easter Beurre. 



19. Ne plus Meuris. 



20. Beurre Bance. 



All the above are excellent varieties, succeed well 

 on the Quince stock, and ripen in the order in which, 

 they are numbered, their season extending from Sep- 

 tember to March. WTien the amateur chooses his. 

 varieties he should select those which have been 

 worked near to the ground, as it is advisable to bury 

 the whole of the stock in the soU. For pyramids and 

 cordons the stems should be clean and straight, and 

 free • from canker or enlargement where they are^ 

 worked. 



The following twelve sorts of Pears, being large 

 and handsome, are well adapted for exhibition- 

 purposes : — 



Beurre Diel. 

 Beune Superfin. 

 Beurre Easter. 

 Bonchr^tien. 

 Doyenne du Comice. 

 Duchesse d'Angoul&me. 



Durandeau. 

 Glout Morceau. 

 Louise Bonne of Jersey. 

 Marie Louise. 

 Pitmaston Duchesse. 

 Souvenir de Gongrds. 



The Apricot. — Apricots are sometimes grown in 

 the orchard-house ; but when subjected to the treat- 

 ment recommended for other kinds of trees in the 

 mixed orchard-house, they are capricious and uncer- 

 tain, and less profitable than Peaches, Plums, or 

 Pears. 



'Wlere the house is divided into sections, and each 

 Mnd can have a department, the Apricot can be in- 

 duced to carry good crops of fruit. Like all stone- 

 fruit trees, the Apricot succeeds well in a strong cal- 

 careous soil, to which a liberal quantity- of old lime- 

 rubble has been added. It is a gross feeder, and takes 

 copious supplies of water throughout the season of 

 growth, and is benefited by exposure to the ele- 

 ments from the time the fruit is gathered until the 

 end of October, or a month later, when the autumn 

 is fine and mild. From the time the trees are 

 housed until the blossoms begin to swell, an abun- 

 dance of air is necessary, to keep the buds in check ; 

 otherwise, being one of our earliest and most im- 

 patient fruit-trees, they wiU burst into flower before 

 the danger of injury from spring frosts has passed 

 away. "Where houses have a flow and return pipe 

 rvuming through them, sharp morning frosts can be 

 warded off; hut too much fire-heat is quite as fatal 

 to the crop as the want of it. In spring, when the 

 buds show signs of swelling, give the trees a dressing- 



