176 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



a very general consensus of practical opinion would 

 be to the effect that the out-of-door fruit were the 

 more rich and luscious. 



As to cycles of had seasons, unfavourable to the 

 open-air culture of the Peach, and other semi-tender 

 fruits, they have been always with us periodically. 

 We read of them in our past records, as well as 

 suffer from them in our present experience. Fickle- 

 ness and change have been written on our spring 

 weather ever since we have any record of it, either 

 in books or its doings among plants. 



Possibly the cheapness and plentifulness of glass 

 in these days weakens and enervates the cultivator 

 as much or more than some of the plants that he 

 grows under it. Still our object is by no means to 

 pit the culture of the Peach in the open air against 

 its culture under glass, but rather to encourage every 

 one to endeavour to command success out of doors. 

 In this, as in most pursuits, it may be affirmed with 

 more rather than less truth, that he will conquer who 

 believes he can. 



Though the trees are neither h ss nor more hardy 

 than they were, nor the climate one whit more 

 severe than it was, yet it may prove a very dis- 

 appointing tactical and cultural error to treat the 

 Peach or Nectarine as perfectly hardy. Use and 

 wont does not change the constitution, nor affect the 

 hardiness, or otherwise, of the plant. The misreading 

 of altitude originated most of the fallacies of acclima- 

 tisation. Climate is determined by altitude far more 

 than by degrees of latitude and longitude, and 

 British zones may readily be found in all quarters of 

 the globe. Hence, and as a matter of coarse, trees 

 and plants from these zones, whether hailing from 

 Africa, Asia, Europe, or America, thrive almost as 

 well with us as at home. 



Importance of Recognising Differing 

 Degrees of Solar Energy. — Due allowance must 

 be made for this in the culture of such fruits as the 

 Peach. For example, the average temperature of a 

 certain altitude in Persia, the reported home of the 

 Peach, may correspond with our own, and yet the 

 sun's energy or force be greatly in excess of ours. 

 Hence the necessity, by the choice of favourable sites, 

 the erection of walls, the covering of the Peach-trees 

 with glass, and other expedients, of making the most 

 and the best of our solar light and heat. Even our 

 methods of propagation, planting, pruning, training, 

 mav all contribute to the same result — viz., that of 

 utilising to the uttermost our solar force. 



Influence of Site on Climate. — The influence 

 of soil, shelter, and aspect upon climate have been 

 treated of in the case of other fruits, and we only 

 need here enlarge upon the special importance, in 



the case of Peaches, of choosing the cardinal points, 

 or aspect. To pass from the north to the south side 

 of a wall is often like coming from winter into 

 summer. Peaches can be grown successfully on 

 walls with several points of east from south, and on 

 all aspects from south to due west, yet southern 

 aspects on the most favourable sites yield the best 

 and surest results. 



Skeletonised trees, as our Peaches on w^alls mostly 

 and necessarily are, are subjected to far more light 

 and heat than those of bush, pyramid, standard, or 

 other shapes. While the thinner the wood, and the 

 more bare brick exposed between the branches, the 

 higher the local temperature enjoyed by the trees. 



Trees Hardier than Flowers and Young 

 Fruit.— Not a fewfailures arise from the overlooking 

 of the above fact. The Almond (twin brother to the 

 Peach), the double Peach, and even fruiting varieties, 

 are often planted in shrubberies, and thrive well, 

 and bloom freely. In favourable localities Almonds 

 not seldom ripen their fruits. Neither are Peach- 

 trees on garden walls often seriously injured by the 

 cold. For one tree crippled or destroyed by frost, a 

 score — fifty even — are ruined by the aphides. But 

 while the trees escape injur y, the bloom is not sel- 

 dom swept off, or destroyed. What has been said 

 elsewhere as to high and low localities will here 

 specially apply, for Peach-blossoms are blasted by 

 spring frosts in the troughs of valleys, while those 

 planted upon rolling, broken, and higher ground 

 escape. The tenderness of the Peach-bloom, as well 

 as its earliness, also suggests the wisdom and neces- 

 sity of providing them with some extra protection 

 against those accidental and abnormally severe 

 frosts that prove so trying and discouraging to the 

 Peach-grower in the open air. Peach-blooms can 

 hardly be trusted to endure with impunity more 

 than from five to eight degrees of frost, and they 

 mostly open their blooms in the last fortnight of 

 March, in which we not seldom have from twelve to 

 eighteen degrees of frost. However, in calculating 

 our chances of success, the ameliorating influences of 

 cultivation and of shelter must not be lost sight of. 

 All such influences combined will amount to an 

 average advantage of from five to ten degrees in 

 favour of the cultivator. 



Mean Temperature of the Earlier 

 Months of the Year.— Though we cannot con- 

 trol accidental temperatures, we can select our means 

 of the months, and unless the mean of March, in any 

 given place, approximates closely to 45°, of April to 

 50°, May 55°, June 60°, July and August 60° and 

 65°, it will hardly be possible to grow Peaches to the 

 highest perfection in the open air. Under skilful 



