THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
261 
quality of the produce. We save thereby the tender crop from 
destruction by frost and wet when the trees are in bloom, we obtain 
increased heat for the ripening of the fruit, and the growth of the 
season is more perfectlv matured. No one expects a dish of Black 
Hamburgh grapes or Walburton Admirable peaches worth a place 
on a good table without the help of glass. Even strawberries, the 
hardiest of our choice fruits, and lovers of the fresh air, are the 
better for the shelter of glass iu a cold season. 
But we can scarcely help saying that, in many instances, and 
wdth, of course, the best intentions, glass has been abused. The 
orchard-house, with its potted trees, is a charming afl'air when well 
managed, and the trees will give as much fruit as would fill the 
])ots they are grown in; but it is a manifest delusion to suppose 
that the produce is ever equivalent to the actual value of the labour 
expended in securing it. If skill aud labour have to be paid for at 
average rates, potted trees make too much work for the return they 
give, and we go back to the old aud sound system of planting oul 
in borders as the one to be trusted for profitable ends. In the first 
instance, fewer trees are required, at every step there is less work, 
and the trees, having more vigour of growth, are less infested with 
vermin, less tortured by disease, aud the crop puts to shame that of 
the best collection of potted trees occupying a similar extent of 
glass. A well-shaped and freely-fruited pot-tree is a beautiful object, 
of which its possessor may well be proud; but the man who keeps 
a ledger, and desires fruit at no higher price than its actual cost in 
outlay and labour, will be cautious how he deals with these pretty 
toys, and will prefer to accommodate Nature rather than engage in 
a constant warfare with her. All restrictions of the head and root, 
no matter what the subject may be, is a form of warfare ; and in the 
case of fruit trees, restriction must increase the cares of the culti- 
vator, and lessen the chances of success. 
But restriction is not alone practised in the cultivation of fruit- 
trees iu pots. We see it everywhere iu operation as the orthodox 
method of cultivating the grape-vine, and the complaints of shank- 
ing, bad colouring, and other ailments, which reach horticultural 
advisers in extravagant abundance, invariably occur in connection 
with restricted vines. The great vines, which have a large house 
devoted to them, are never in need of doctors ; they spread abroad 
as Nature designed the vine to spread, and though subjected to 
artificial treatment, and rooted in a soil many degrees colder than 
the vine is accustomed to in its native habitats, their vigour is ever 
in excess of the influences tending to their injury, and a state of 
liealth and productiveness is normal to them. 
What is true of the grape-vine is true of other trees. As in the 
case of potted trees and single-rod vines, single-cordon and bush 
apple and pear-trees, are useful things. They grow very little, and 
produce, in comparison with the space they occupy, very fair supplies 
of good fruit. But if our supplies of home-grown fruit are defective, 
these miniature trees will not supply the deflciency. They belong 
to the land of toys, and their advocacy as profitable fruit-producers 
has been overdone. Let us hope, however, that healthy trees ou 
September, 
