515 



THE 



FORCING GARDEN. 



INTRODUCTION. 



To accelerate, as well as to cultivate by artificial means, 

 those fruits which are natives of more temperate or tropical 

 climates, " constitutes one of the principal branches of modern 

 gardening : " hence it becomes necessary to form climates suit- 

 able for their growth, and these climates are formed in those 

 erections generally denominated hot or forcing-houses. In 

 regard to the period when the acceleration of fruits was first 

 practised in this country, we have no certain information. 

 Some suppose that the Romans hastened the ripening of grapes 

 in this country under talc cases, similar to the modes used by 

 them in Italy ; while, on the other hand, it is the opinion of 

 others, that no attempt had been made to force the ripening of 

 fruit before the sixteenth century. 



Parkinson and Gerarde both describe the practice of grow- 

 ing cucumbers and melons, by removing them into sheds or ^ 

 rooms at night, and exposing them in fine weather during the 

 day. This seems to have been the most primitive mode, having 

 been practised in Italy in the time of Tiberius, and probably 

 was succeeded by merely covering with glass-cases, being in 

 itself an improvement on the talc cases used by the Romans, as 

 described by Seneca and Pliny. The next step towards im- 

 provement, was the use of fermenting vegetable matter in the 

 formation of hot-beds, and afterwards of hot-walls, and lastly 

 the construction of hot-houses, which took their rise about 

 the end of the seventeenth century, and which are now arrived 

 at that degree of excellence, that is not likely to be surpassed. 

 In the time of Charles the First, melons were cultivated on 



