296 THE FLORIST AND 



other purposes besides, that he has during these last two or three years been 

 constantly adding to their number. His fruiting house this year has been, 

 as it well deserved to be, the admiration of all who have seen it. It is span- 

 roofed, 70 feet in length and 20 feet in width, with boarded sides and ends, 

 and fixed glass roof, and it has upwards of 100 trees of Peaches and Necta- 

 rines from four to six years old in it, many of the later kinds being now lit- 

 erally laden with fruit. As an example of the way in which the trees have 

 borne, we may mention that on one of them we counted between four and 

 five dozen Peaches. The effect of a whole house full of such fruit-bearing 

 trees may therefore be more easily imagined than described. 



The trees are all in 13-inch pots, and are set on beds of soil; the centre 

 one being about 6 feet in width, and the two side ones each 5 feet in width. 

 These beds contain about 18 inches in depth of mould, which is kept out of 

 the paths by brick edgings. The pots, which have several holes in the bot- 

 tom, or at least have their holes very much enlarged, are set on these 

 beds, into which the roots are allowed to enter. To sustain a good sized 

 Peach tree in a pot, however (and some of them are 4 or 5 feet in height), 

 something more is necessary than merely allowing its roots to go into the 

 border ; annually in March, therefore, every troe has a top-dressing of some 

 stimulant. Mr. Rivers has employed with much success, stiff loam mixed 

 with horse-droppings mixed with night-soil, exposed to the air two or three 

 months, placed on the surface of the pots, previously stirring the soil with 

 a pointed stick, and taking out a portion of it 2 or 3 inches in depth. Li- 

 quid manure, not too strong, is also applied once a week during the summer; 

 weak guano water, 1 lb. to 30 gallons, has been found as good as any. A 

 good soaking of this once a week has been found preferable to using it more 

 frequently. Under this kind of treatment the trees are kept in the very 

 best of health, and they bear, as has just been shown, enormous crops of fruit 

 and their being in pots which permit them to root into the beds, the control 

 over them is perfect, for when any tree becomes at all what is termed pot 

 proud, its luxuriance is easily checked by merely inclining it on one side 

 sufficiently to break off a portion of the roots. At the end of October, when 

 the trees are put to rest, the whole of them are root-pruned, i. £., all the 

 roots which have entered the bed are cut off, and after two or three years 

 the soil of the bed or border itself is removed 2 or 3 inches in depth, and 

 filled up with a compost of burnt earth, manure, 1-inch bones, and turfy 

 loam, all very rough. During winter the trees are kept as dry as possible, 

 and sometimes, if the weather then is excessively severe, dry hay or litter 

 is laid on and around the pots. This, however, is seldom needed. 



