THE PEACH AND NECTARINE. 



505 



sufficient for this, but in the case of very late 

 sorts, grown in peach-houses to supply the 

 table in September, a little fire-heat may be in 

 some seasons required, but its application should 

 be after the fruit has ripened. 



Besides ripening the peach in regular peach- 

 houses, other means are often had recourse to, 

 such as growing them in pits heated by solar 

 influence, by fermentation — a practice much in 

 use on the Continent — and growing them in pots, 

 as practised by some few in this country. Figs. 

 466, 467, vol. i. p. 347, are examples of pits used 

 for the former process ; and figs. 405, 407, and 

 408, vol. i. p. 302, although described as for the 

 vine, are equally applicable to the peach. The 

 peach being more difficult to bring to perfection 

 at a very early season than the vine, we hold all 

 such contrivances as far behind the age we live 

 in. The culture of them in pots is a different 

 affair, and requires both skill and attention. 

 The best directions given on this head are those 

 of Mr Hutchison of Eatington Park, published 

 in " The Gardeners' Chronicle," Mr Hutchison 

 having succeeded, so far as we know, in ripening 

 peaches earlier and with greater certainty than 

 any other person. His practice is to select trees 

 of three years' growth, planting them in 12-inch 

 pots, cutting back the wood to four buds, and 

 shifting them yearly until the trees have filled 

 with roots an 18 -inch pot, which is the largest 

 size he believes to be required. The soil he uses 

 is good turfy loam, mixed with decayed portions 

 of wood from the bottom of a wood pile. When 

 the trees are established to his mind, he " brings 

 them into the house in mild weather during 

 November, a little earlier or later according to 

 the state of the weather. Do not start them all, 

 however, at once ; the last lot need not be put 

 in until the first of January. Any later than 

 this would not answer, as the weather, if clear, 

 is then hot through the day. Commence forcing 

 at 55° at night, allowing the thermometer to fall 

 to 50° in the morning, if cold; but if the weather 

 is mild, never to fall below 55°, and from that 

 to 60° is the usual temperature kept up through- 

 out the period of forcing during the night : 

 during the day I make up for low night-tem- 

 perature when I have the chance of sun-heat. 

 Do not be fastidious about a few degrees ; to 

 get it high enough is the main point — say from 

 70° to 85° and 90° — until the fruit is stoned, 

 then keep them very hot during the day, viz., 

 from 95° to 105°, and sometimes even as high 

 as 110°. Of course, a great deal of moisture is 

 required with this high temperature ; syringe 

 over head twice a-day, and sometimes oftener 

 when the air is dry, and you will scarcely ever 

 be troubled with green-fly or red-spider. Water- 

 ing at the root must be carefully attended to : 

 very little is wanted until the trees get covered 

 with leaves, but after the fruit is stoned they 

 should be watered plentifully. Of course the 

 water must be gradually withdrawn as the fruit 

 approaches maturity, in order to increase their 

 flavour." By these means excellent ripe peaches 

 have been produced for several years so early as 

 the first week in April, and Mr Hutchison anti- 

 cipates doing so even in March. They are grown 

 in pots in the open air, and transferred to the 



pine-stove to produce their fruit. Fumigation 

 is studiously avoided, and insects kept under by 

 a free use of the syringe. 



Much advantage has resulted from assisting 

 the impregnation of the flowers in early forcing, 

 particularly when the trees are young and of 

 robust habit, and where they are deprived of 

 the natural agencies — a sufficiency of air, and the 

 operation of bees and other insects. The pollen 

 may in such cases be applied from the stamens 

 to the pistil by means of a fine camel-hair pencil. 

 In cases of trees of the most fructiferous descrip- 

 tion, which often produce flower-buds in abun- 

 dance but no wood, except at their termination, 

 should even the blossoms set their fruit, it almost 

 invariably drops off soon afterwards for want of 

 the terminating bud to draw up sap for their 

 support. Knight has suggested in such cases 

 inarching a small branch with leaf-buds imme- 

 diately above the fruit-buds, and has succeeded 

 in causing such fruit to ripen to great maturity. 

 The same authority transferred fruit-buds from 

 one tree to the barren branches of another, and 

 produced fruit by the process — of course, of the 

 same variety as the tree from which the fruit- 

 buds were taken. 



Peaches, nectarines, and apricots have been 

 most successfully grown in pots by Mr Rivers 

 of Sawbridgeworth, in his orchard-houses or 

 deep pits. For the principles of his practice, see 

 article Apricot. 



Training the peach and nectarine under glass. — 

 The fan mode is usually adopted, and the trees 

 planted to suit the structure they are grown in. 

 When the peach-house is a mere narrow passage, 

 of some 5 or 6 feet in breadth (see figs. 468, 

 474, vol. i. p. 348, 350), the trees are usually 

 planted against the back wall, which they are 

 made to cover, being trained to a wire trellis 

 from 3 to 4 inches distant from it. For very 

 early forcing this is a very eligible way, as 

 the roots are for the most part confined under 

 cover of the house, and exempt from excessive 

 cold or excessive wet. When the houses are of 

 greater width, the trees are otherwise arranged — 

 viz., one set covering the back wall, as in figs. 

 469, 472, 473, 477, vol. i., with a curvilinear 

 trellis in front, as there also exhibited, the trees 

 on which are usually planted just within the 

 front parapet-wall, their roots finding their way 

 into the exterior prepared border ; while others 

 are planted nearer the centre of the house, as 

 in fig. 472, vol. i., and trained partly to gable 

 trellises, suspended from under every alternate 

 rafter, and partly up three wires, placed a foot 

 under the top part of the rafter, as shown in 

 fig. 472 ; and sometimes the gable trellis is 

 continued over the footpath, forming a series of 

 arches, as in the case of one of the peach-houses 

 in the gardens at Dalkeith, of which the annexed 

 fig. 227 is an interior view. This last we consider 

 to give the greatest extent of surface for training, 

 with the least amount of shade. Another mode 

 of training, often met with in old houses, is to 

 cover the whole lean-to roof with a trellis, and 

 to train the trees over it, these being planted 

 near the front of the house. By this means the 

 fruit is placed near the glass, and sufficiently 

 well exposed ; but much of the interest is lost 



