ON COVERING GARDEN WALLS WITH MOVEABLE SASHES. 
19 
of retarding or advancing the maturity of a fruit, to meet any particular demand; this, 
however, is a mistaken idea, as the plant may at any time be lifted with a good ball, potted 
and placed wherever the operator may deem fit. 
Nothing could he more convenient than the order in which the Pines throw up their 
fruit. The Montserrat and Black Jamaica have a natural tendency to come up in autumn, 
while the Queen (Ripley of course) comes up more freely during the spring and early summer 
months. This is exactly as we would wish it, as nothing can surpass the excellence of the 
Queen Pine for summer use, hut for winter the Montserrat and Black Jamaica are for many 
reasons preferable. 
In conclusion, allow me to express a hope, that my brethren will not neglect to chronicle 
any improvement which they have made in the cultivation of this fruit, as I still believe 
that, notwithstanding the many improved methods of practice which have been introduced 
of late years, much more remains to be found out. 
COVERING GARDEN WALLS WITH MOVEABLE SASHES TO PROTECT AND 
FORCE THE FINER SORTS OF FRUIT IN WET SUMMERS. 
By Mr. W. Tillery, Gardener to His Grace the Duke of Portland, Welbeck, Notts. 
The new method of Mr. Ker’s of covering ground with moveable sashes to grow Peach 
and Nectarine trees, brought lately into notice by Mr Rivers, is a step in the right direction, 
and, in the words of Dr. Lindley, promises to be the beginning of a new era in English 
gardening. About thirteen years ago, in the gardens at Fullerton House in Ayrshire, 
I remember to have tried May Duke and Morello cherries on a trellis ; the situation was on 
a sloping bank, with slates placed on the earth to reflect heat ; and the distance between 
the slates and trellis was about eighteen inches at the back. The trees were not covered 
with glass, but only trained in that fashion, on purpose that they might be the easier 
covered with nets to preserve the fruit till the latest period. The fruit was remarkably 
fine, as fine as I ever saw on walls, and ripening nearly as early. Mr. Ker’s mode of 
covering with glass will be the means of protecting the blossoms from spring frosts, as well 
as ripening the wood in wet sunless summers. My predecessor here (Mr. Mearns) tried to 
force Apricots along with Peaches and Nectarines ; but it was found that without giving 
a great deal of air and attention at the blossoming and setting of the fruit, success was not 
commensurate with the expense of having a hothouse for the purpose. He therefore 
planned a portable wooden house merely to protect the blossoms in severe weather, and it 
has answered admirably since. It was to follow up this mode that I covered last May one- 
half of a wall 300 feet long, with some loose sashes that had been used for covering two 
long vine borders. The trees 
on the division of the wall 
that I covered were princi- 
pally Peaches and Necta- 
rines, and I found that they 
ripened their fruit two weeks 
sooner than those on the 
open walls, and made an 
excellent succession to the 
late Peach-house. Had I 
been able to have had the 
lights on at the flowering 
period, I have no doubt but 
they would have ripened 
still earlier. We all know, 
that with the exception of the month of May, the past summer has been a most wet and 
ungenial one for our finer sorts of fruits ; but some of these Peaches and Nectarines were 
as fine as I have ever had them, and well coloured. Another great advantage is getting 
the wood well ripened in the autumn, which can be done thoroughly by this mode. I intend, 
