CHAPTER X. 



FORCING THE APRICOT, PLUM, AND CHERRY. 



The plum and cherry have been long subjected 

 to a species of forcing, the success of which 

 depended greatly on the means used to effect 

 the end — the most primitive mode being that of 

 placing glass sashes in front of walls, heated by 

 flues or by solar action, on which the trees 

 were permanently grown. Switzer states that 

 these fruits were also forced by the London 

 gardeners by means of dung-heat, and probably 

 under frames or pits, similar to many of those 

 still in use in many parts of the Continent {vide 

 vol. i. fig. 405). In this way (although we have 

 no record of the fact) it is most probable that 

 those cherries were produced, mentioned by 

 Daines Barrington as appearing on the table of 

 Charles IL at his installation-dinner, given at 

 Windsor on the 23d of April 1667, and at which, 

 he also informs us, forced strawberries and ice- 

 creams were also produced. 



Forcing cherries, until within these few years, 

 was carried on upon a very limited scale in 

 Britain, and, with the exception of one or two 

 commercial growers, was almost confined to the 

 royal gardens. Plums began to be afterwards 

 forced, and last of all the apricot. It would be 

 difficult to assign a sufficient reason why these 

 three excellent fruits should have been so long 

 disregarded, seeing the peach and nectarine have 

 been so long and so very generally forced in all 

 our best gardens ; and the more so as regards the 

 apricot, as it approaches in its nature and cha- 

 racter so closely to the peach and nectarine, and 

 is a native of almost the same country. A pre- 

 judice long existed, but upon no rational ground, 

 that they were more difficult to manage under 

 the influence of a glass structure than the others. 

 Experience has now completely overcome that 

 prejudice; and hence we have our cherry- 

 houses, plum-houses, and apricot-houses, con- 

 structed in some cases in no way different from 

 the ordinary peach-house, as exemplified, No. 4, 

 in Ground Plan of the Royal Gardens at Frog- 

 more, plate 10, vol. i., and at other times upon 

 the span-roofed principle, as shown, No. 11, in 

 the same plate, and in elevation, fig. 495, vol. i. 

 Figs. 493, 494 exhibit cross sections of struc- 

 tures which we think admirably fitted for the 

 purpose of producing these fruits in the highest 

 degree of perfection. Mr Ewing's glass walls, 

 plate 2, vol. i., those of Mr Spencer of Bowood, 

 fig. 79, and the novel glass erections contrived 



by Mr Fleming at Trentham, described at p. 353, 

 355, vol. i., are all eminently adapted for this 

 purpose ; and with such structures as these in 

 the hands of a skilful gardener, no more diffi- 

 culty need be apprehended in producing early 

 crops of the one class of fruits than of the other. 

 Where the trees are planted out as permanent 

 occupants of such structures, and where early 

 forcing is an object, by the latter end of Novem- 

 ber they should be pruned, tied to the trellis, 

 the borders slightly forked up and top-dressed, 

 as recommended for the peach-house, and all 

 things prepared for commencing slight excite- 

 ment by the beginning of January. Where the 

 trees are grown in large pots or tubs, with a 

 view to their being set out of doors after their 

 fruit is gathered and their wood ripened, or 

 where, as is frequently done with great advan- 

 tage, they are turned out of the pots and planted 

 in the open ground, and allowed to remain there 

 every alternate season, to recover from the 

 effects of their season of being forced, a selec- 

 tion of them should be removed into the struc- 

 ture during November; and as those for pot- 

 culture should be trained as standards or dwarfs, 

 and of various heights, to suit the construction 

 of the house, the tallest, if a span-roof, should 

 occupy the centre of the floor; if a lean-to 

 house, the side next the back wall, the lower 

 ones in either case being placed in front. By 

 judicious annual root-pruning, and planting in 

 fresh turfy soil, plums and cherries may for 

 this purpose be grown in the open air, and if 

 carefully taken up as early in autumn as the 

 wood and buds are ripened, and planted in the 

 borders of the forcing-house, they will fruit as 

 well as if they were permanently established. 

 Early planting has, however, much to do with 

 this ; and we need hardly remark that the situa- 

 tion they are placed in when in the open air 

 should be the warmest and most sheltered the 

 garden affords, to insure an early maturation of 

 their buds. Apricots, from being a much ten- 

 derer tree, should be grown against a south wall, 

 and when transferred to the house, either trained 

 to a trellis or trained in the espalier fashion. 

 They may, however, be grown in pots as stan- 

 dards, but in such a case should remain per- 

 manently under the glass covering, because, if 

 treated otherwise, their wood and buds would 

 not become sufficiently matured without artificial 



