G;)0 TIIL rilACTKAL GARDENER. [Mar. 



Uluximiim. If llic weather bo dull and cloudy, it may be ne- 

 ec'ssary, by aid of fire-heat through the day, to raise the tem- 

 perature at least to 80° ; at which it can be regulated for a 

 few hours daily by the admission of air. It is necessary thus 

 far to imitate nature by keeping the tcm})crature tlnoughout 

 the day, either by sun or fire-heat, several degrees above the 

 night temperature ; for nothing can be so injurious to any plant 

 in ail artificial climate, as to keep up a high temperature durin** 

 tlie night, and upon the first sight of the rise of temperature 

 by sun-heat to throw open the house, thereby keeping nearly 

 an equality of temperature day and night, or rather keeping 

 the temj^eralure of the night higher several degrees than thnt 

 of the day, whereas the very opposite ought to be the case. 

 This circumstance was not unnoticed by that great ])hysi()lo- 

 gistMr. Knight, when his attention was particularly directed to 

 pine growing ; and his observations upon this very subject, are 

 more rational and just than almost any other of his directions 

 for cultivating the pine. 



FORCING PEACHES. 



By the beginning of this month the peach-trees will be in 

 blossom, if the directions laid down in the preceding months 

 have heen projx^rly attended to. The temperature now should 

 be gradually raised from 52^ to 55°, at which point it should 

 stand about the second week in the month, and remain at that 

 temperature during the remainder of the m/3nth. Air should 

 now be freely admitted to strengthen the peach-blossom, nnd 

 ensure their setting, not only by adding to them strength, but 

 also by assisting in the dispersion of the farina, or male fer- 

 tilizing dust of the anthers, or male parts of the fructification, 

 upon the female organs ; for without such impregnation the 

 blossom would prove abortive, and no fruit would conse- 

 quently follow. The trees, during the period that their blos- 

 som is expandeil, Lannot be supplied with water by the syringe 

 so bountifully as previous to their expansion, therefore the 

 steaming of the house should not be neglected ; for although 

 any superabundant supply of water, either at their roots or 

 over their branches, would materially injure the more delicate 



