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XVIIT. Instructions for Forcing Cherries. In a Letter to the 

 Secretary. By Mr. Thomas Torbron, Corresponding 

 Member of the Horticultural Society, Gardener to the Earl 

 of Bridgewater, at Ashridge, Hertfordshire. 



Read March 7th, 1820. 



Sir, 



It is many years since I first had the management of Forcing 

 Cherries, at Petworth, where the Earl of Egremont kept a 

 house * for that purpose, sixty feet long by about thirty feet 

 wide, and in which were two pits, the whole length of the 

 house ; each pit was nine feet nine inches wide, with a walk 

 all round and between them ; and though I have had con- 

 siderable practice, yet I confess, it is with much diffidence 

 and reluctance that I have been persuaded to write on the 

 subject. 



The trees which I forced were May Dukes, from four to 

 eight or ten years from the bud, and selected of such various 

 heights as best suited the size of the house, and the slope of 

 its roof, so that when planted none of those in front might 

 obstruct the rays of light from those placed behind. 



Cherry trees for forcing should be planted as early in the 

 autumn as the season will permit, either in a prepared bor- 

 der of fresh virgin soil, inside the house, mulched and wa- 

 tered in summer, or in pots, tubs, or boxes, filled with such 

 earth, having mixed therewith one-third or one-fourth of 

 rotten dung; the pots, tubs, &c. should be afterwards plunged 



* This house was some years since pulled down. 



