34 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



alone : but as there are very few places in which a 

 house capable of doing- double duty is objectionable, 

 and tall standard trees can always be obtained, the 

 extra cost is trifling if it is not money well invested. 

 The trellis in this house is twenty inches from the 

 glass, and the trees have the run of internal and 

 external borders, and are trained upon the extension 

 principle, never having been shortened back with 

 the knife. The roof is fixed, but abundantly ven- 

 tilated, and three rows of pipes for giving warmth 

 and ripening the wood run along the two sides and 

 the end facing the north. 



Fig. 4 represents a very useful span-roofed house 

 with raised borders, as well as the centre path, rest- 

 ing on eighteen inches of clean 

 stone for the purpose of secur- 

 ing warmth and perfect drain- 

 age. The inside borders are 

 kept up by four-and-a-half inch 

 brick walls, and the whole 

 structure is supported on brick 

 piers fourteen inches by nine, 

 placed four feet apart along the 

 sides and ends. Although the 

 internal borders are barely six 

 feet in width, and the external 

 roots are not numerous, the 

 growth of the trees is all that 

 can be desired, and the crops of 

 fruit are .excellent. It has often 

 struck me that much expense 

 and labour are wasted in 

 making immense borders which 

 the roots never fill ; and that 

 narrower, and consequently drier, borders, which 

 will take frequent supplies of stimulating liquid, are 

 better adapted for the growth of the Peach. When 

 young trees are planted in borders of this kind, they 

 at once set about forming and throwing out numerous 

 bright fibry roots, similar to those we find in pots, 

 and as these always ripen well, and are ever ready, 

 with their thousands of healthy spongioles, for food in 

 a liquid form, the growth they make is short- jointed, 

 floriferous, and fruitful. 



Peach-cases. — In addition to the lean-to and 

 the span, there are Peach-cases, varying from four to 

 eight feet in width, placed upon iron or brick pedes- 

 tals sunk in the ground, not unfrequently in front 

 of south walls already furnished with trees from 

 which, owing to the unfavourable locality and the 

 prevailing bad seasons, good crops in the open air 

 are very precarious or uncertain. 



Fig. 5 is a good representation of a Peach-case in 

 which the trees can be planted against the wall, or 

 they may be placed near the front, and trained over 



Border ; oo, pipes ; i 

 Strawberries. 



a trellis some sixteen inches from the glass as shown 

 by the dotted lines in Fig. 5. Many of these cases 

 are not fitted with hot- water pipes, but this is false 

 economy, particularly in low damp situations subject 

 to fogs in autumn, when the wood requires a dry, 

 bracing, consolidating atmosphere, as well as in the 

 spring, when sharp morning frosts, or the con- 

 tinuance of damp, dull weather, may be prej udicial 

 to the setting of the fruit. Houses of this kind can 

 be built with fixed roofs well ventilated at the top. 

 and all the front lights should be made to open out- 

 wards by the aid of continuous ventilating machinery. 

 They should also be fitted with hydrants for econo- 

 mising labour in washing the foliage and watering 

 the roots, as the trees require 

 an abundance of water. The 

 main object oemg the certainty 

 of securing good crops of fruit 

 annually, and as late as possible, 

 suitable kinds of trees, such as 

 Walburton Late Admirable, 

 Barrington, Sea Eagle, and 

 Desse Tardive Peaches, Albert 

 Victor and Victoria Nectarines, 

 should be well represented. 

 The ventilators should be thrown 

 wide open and never closed 

 through the summer, and a flow 

 and return pipe should be laid 

 on for use after the fruit is 

 gathered. 



Peach-case. 



shelf for 



Drainage for Borders. — 



Although the Peach delights 

 in an abundance of water throughout the grow- 

 ing season, and casts its buds if allowed to get 

 dry at the root during the winter months, it is 

 greatly averse to cold stagnant water which cannot 

 pass away through the drains. In some places, 

 and especially in hilly districts on the granite, sand- 

 stone, and chalk, the natural drainage is quite satis- 

 factory ; while in others, where the subsoil is cold, 

 wet, and heavy, it is necessary to make the most 

 careful provision for the well-being of the roots, 

 which should be as completely under control 

 as those of the Vine. But as Peaches, in cal- 

 careous soils that suit them, do not require so 

 much root-space as the Vine, the excavation for 

 them need not be quite so wide, and the trees in 

 early and mid-season houses should have the majority 

 of the roots, if not all of them, inside. The excava- 

 tion should, however, extend some little distance 

 beyond the front piers, or arches, with a gentle fall 

 from the back path to the barrel drain, as is shown 

 in Fig. 1 ; while in the house represented in Fig. 2 

 the external excavation should not be less than six 



