562 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



the fruit-chamber." {Hort. Trans, vol. i. App.) Williams, of Pilmaston, says, 

 " Should the season prove vv et when the peaches are ripe, they should be gathered, and 

 placed for about two days in a dry airy room before they are eaten." {Horl. Trans. 

 vol. ii. p. 113.) 



3108. Ripening the wood. Abercrombie says, " On account of the fruit of most sorts 

 of peaches ripening somewhat earlier than grapes, and the growth of the shoots stopping 

 sooner than the summer- wood of vines, it is not so often necessary to assist tlie plant, 

 in September or October, by artificial heat ; but in some of the late kinds, if, by the 

 time the external air is down to 60 degrees, the shoots have not taken a greenish-brown 

 tint as high as several eyes from the origin, and if the blossom-buds on these, round 

 wlien full swelled, are not distinguishable from the oblong wood-buds, apply a little 

 fire-heat, and continue it till the leaves fall." 



3109. Nicol directs attention to be had to the ripening of the wood of peach-trees in September. A little 

 fire-heat maybe necessary fully to mature the shoots, especially of young trees. " Fire-heat should be 

 continued till the growth of the smaller and middle-sized shoots stop, their bottom parts become greenish- 

 brown, and the buds upon them, that is, the flower-buds, appear turgid, and be distinguishable from the 

 wood-buds. The sitronger and more extreme shoots of the dwarfs in particular will continue to grow 

 later than the above shoots ; which, as they are to be considerably shortened back in November, for the 

 production of wood to fill the trellis next season, is not very material, provided the bottom part be pretty 

 well hardened." 



3110. Resting the imod. The management of the peach-house, when at rest, Aber- 

 crombie says, " Should be nearly the same as for the grape-house, except when there is 

 but one set of frames to serve both an early peach-house and late grape-house ; in which 

 case, as soon as the young wood of the vines is perfectly ripened, the glasses should be 

 brought back to the peach-house ; t'oT although the fruit of the grape is to be set and 

 ripened in a higher heat, the peach-tree, as a plant, is more tender than the vine; and 

 independently of forcing, comes into blossom about two months sooner." 



3111. M'Phail keeps on the glasses from the time the fruit is gathered till he begins to force, in order to 

 keep the wood dry ; but gives them all the air he can. {Gard. Remem. 367.) 



3112. 'Nicol exposes the house fully day and night, only shutting up in the time of heavy rains. 

 {^Kal. 420.) 



3113. Forcing peaches and nectarines by d^ing-heat. The following mode is practised 

 at Dagnam Park : — " The house is seventy feet long by eleven feet wide, the front wall 

 being five feet and a half deep from the bottom of the lights, the depth from the roof 

 (there being no upright lights in front) to the ground : about three feet and a half of 

 the bottom of this wall in open brick-work, with a flue in the inside, the top of which 

 is covered with plain tiles. The inside of the house is filled up with earth to within two 

 feet of the bottom of the lights, and the trees planted as near as possible to the front 

 wall, and trained under the lights or wires, in the same w"ay as vines. The back wall of a 

 pirie-pit is built of the same height as the front of the peach-house, and three feet distant 

 from it ; this of course forms a space thiee feet wide for the hot dung. As soon as I wish to 

 begin forcing, this space is filled with hot dung : the roots being near the flue, soon begin 

 to feel the warmth, and I sometimes take off a few tiles from the top of the flue, so as to 

 admit the steam from the hot dung into the house ; I find this of great advantage, and 

 productive of no ill eflTects, until the leaf-bud begins to expand, and if the stream is not 

 then perfectly sweet and moderate, the places left to admit it must be secured. You 

 will of course observe, that while this hot dung lining is forcing the peaches and nec- 

 tarines, it is assisting to work the pines in the pine-pit at the same time, and without any 

 additional expense, there being also a lining at the front of the pine-pit, as well as this 

 one at the back ; and when it has become cooled by frequent turnings, I either make 

 cucumber-beds of it, or take it inside the peach-house or vinery. For these five years 

 past, I have never failed in producing an abundant crop of peaches and nectarines by 

 the above method." {Bi-eese, in Hort. Trans, v. 219.) 



3114. Forcing the peach-tree in pots. " All the varieties of the peach and nectarine,'* 

 Abercrombie observes, " are extremely well suited for forcing in large pots or tubs. 

 Small plants, intended to come in before or after those in the borders, may be excited, 

 in the first stage, in a distinct house ; so as the temperature of that in which they are 

 brought to finish fruiting* be suited to their progress. The compost for plants in cradles 

 ought to be lighter and richer than the mould in the borders." The pots or tubs should 

 be such as not to contain less than a cubic foot of earth ; the soil should be lighter and 

 richer than that recommended for the borders, and liquid manure should be plentifully 

 supplied, to make up, in some degree, for the confinement of the roots. They are best 

 forced in a peach-house, but succeed in a vinery or succession-stove ; best of all, how- 

 ever, in a pit or Dutch frame {jig. 446.), where the temperature can be regulated at 

 pleasure, and where they are near the glass. Great care must be taken to supply them 

 regularly with water, for which purpose some place saucers under the pots ; others cover 

 their surface with moss, or, what is better, fresh cow or rotten horse dung. Casing the 

 pots with ropes made of moss, is also a veiy good method, as it not only preserves a uni- 



