250 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. t ira** 29 , isss. 
moisture in tlie atmosphere; on the other hand they 
must not be saturated, or their roots will fail to work 
freely. When in active growth they delight in a mode¬ 
rately close, moist, and warm atmosphere. During 
the summer the night temperature may safely range 
at from 70° to 75°, and be allowed to increase by sun 
heat to 85° or 90°. 
Shade must be given during the growing season, but 
not so as to exclude light—merely breaking the strong 
rays of the sun. Abundance of light, with a little air 
admitted daily, is of the utmost importance to solidify 
the growths as they are made. This is most essential 
during the latter stages of growth; and when completed, 
which is readily determined by the small leaf that is 
produced on the termination of the pseudo-bulb, more 
light than ever must be admitted until the plants will 
bear full sunshine. Full exposure must be brought 
about carefully and gradually. Give sufficient water 
to keep them fresh, with more air, until every leaf 
naturally ripens and falls off. Any deficiency in the 
supply of water at this time is apt to bring the plants 
prematurely to rest, which results in the diminished 
size of the pseudo-bulbs and limits the number and 
size of the flowers. 
After the growths have been well ripened the plants 
should be gradually brought to a cooler temperature 
until they can be rested in a temperature of 45° or 50° 
with a dry atmosphere. They should be allowed to 
become thoroughly dry, only giving sufficient water 
to keep the stems from shrivelling. A long season of 
rest is advantageous to insure the plants flowering well 
and making stout vigorous growths the following season. 
It is not difficult to maintain a succession of bloom by 
introducing a few plants into more heat and moisture 
while the remainder are resting. Care must be taken 
that the plants are not transferred directly from a cool 
and dry house to strong heat and moisture. They 
must be gradually inured to the change by affording 
them a few degrees’ more heat at intervals of two or 
three weeks until they are placed in a night tempera¬ 
ture of 60°. The practice of moving these plants from 
the house in which they are at rest into one at least 
15° warmer is unnatural; and the flowers, which were 
probably showing from nearly every joint, will often 
turn yellow, and many of them fail to expand. 
"When the plants have flowered they should have 
exactly the same treatment as recommended for the 
first season for the plants that had started into growth. 
Before the roots commence working, the old sphagnum 
and as much of the surface peat as can be removed 
should be carefully picked out from amongst the roots 
and fresh material added, by which means the plants 
may be kept in the best health and condition. If the 
material be allowed to become thoroughly decomposed 
the plants will not long flourish ; in fact, instead of 
their growths increasing in size and numbers they will 
gradually decrease. It is important that the material 
about their roots be kept fresh even if the plants are 
grown in baskets, for I am convinced that more failures 
are due in the cultivation of Orchids through inatten¬ 
tion to this matter than any other cause. 
When the plants require larger baskets the wires 
should be removed, and the baskets containing the 
plants be placed in others of a larger size, merely re¬ 
moving as much of the decayed compost at the time 
as possible. This is decidedly preferable to trying to 
take them out of the baskets in which they have been 
grown and injuring the roots in the operation. These 
plants while making their growth are subject to red 
spider, which is readily kept down by a liberal use of 
the syringe. 
I may add that D. crassinode, D. Devonianum, 
D. crystallinum, and many others require exactly the 
same treatment. The two last require more moss and 
pieces of charcoal in the compost to grow them to 
perfection than is required by either D. crassinode or 
D. Wardianum. — W. Bardney. 
DISBUDDING, THINNING, and TRAINING PEACHES 
I have an opinion that Peach trees which are grown indoors 
on a flat trellis running parallel to the roof of the house are 
often defoliated too much or too early, and this is especially 
the case with the shoot which pushes from the companion eye 
to that which produces fruit. 
We will suppose that the tree has'received its proper winter 
pruning, is furnished with fruiting branches from a foot to 
3 feet long, well studded with twin and triple buds, that the 
wood is firm and ripe to the point, and has needed no shorten¬ 
ing. Along its entire length, soon after it meets with a suit¬ 
able temperature, it will be clothed with perfect flowers, and 
almost immediately a shoot will start from the base of each 
flower, while the triplet buds will generally furnish two 
shoots. 
As soon as the blooms are expanded many of them will be 
seen to be placed where the fruit would not have the best 
possible chance of coming to perfection, and, as there is at 
least twenty for every one we want, there is ample opportunity 
for selection of the fittest. Those on the upper side of the 
branch are to be preferred, as they will have a better chance 
of receiving direct sunlight; while those on the lower side, and 
such as are apt to come in contact with the trellis, or from any 
cause be unfavourably situated, are to be rubbed off at once, 
leaving, we will say, four to six blooms to the linear foot, all 
of which are favourably placed. This is done before the 
flowers are set, or very soon after. If it is deferred till the 
petals will fall off on being touched, then some of the super¬ 
fluous shoots may be removed with the flowers and with the 
same grip. As soon as the young fruits can be seen to be 
swelling a further thinning takes place, leaving this time about 
double the quantity of fruits we intend to leave at the final 
thinning, which takes place a week later. 
The successional shoot for fruiting the following year has 
now to be looked after. This springs from the base of the 
present fruit-bearing branch, and the lower down we can 
obtain it the better will the tree be furnished. We prefer to 
have no fruit in the way of this, and if there is plenty on the 
upper portion of the branch we remove all at the lower end to 
the length of 4 to 6 inches. The wood buds, too, with the 
exception of the one in question, are removed to this length, 
not all at one time, but sufficiently fast to keep a clear head¬ 
way for our successional shoot. When disbudding and thin¬ 
ning take place thus early, provided it is not done too much 
at a time so as to cause a check, the successional shoots will 
quickly become strong, and if not looked after in the matter 
of training they will be difficult to tie in straightly at a later 
date. 
The fruit-bearing branch being clear, as I have said, for 
4 or 6 inches, I make a practice of tying the successional shoot 
down to it before it has had time to become stiff. It cannot 
at this early period be tied to the trellis, but afterwards it can 
easily be trained to it. It is just where it springs from the 
old wood that there is apt to be a curvature, which half a 
dozen ties the following season will not wholly correct; but 
taken in time now and tied as I have indicated, it will when 
it becomes hard remain in the position desired without the 
employment of much force. 
But the point to which I wish to draw special attention is 
that the shoots left for the purpose of encouraging the sap 
towards the fruit are generally stopped too closely. The first 
five or six leaves on the new shoot are small and presumably 
