204 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 2, 188G. 
and as fine houses as one rarely meets with, finished in substantial and 
elaborate form, heated admirably, with abundance of ventilation at com¬ 
mand. This range is about 250 feet long, 17 feet high, and 18 feet wide. 
Peaches are on the eastern side, and vineries on the western ditto. The 
back walls of the Peach houses were loaded, in the earlier compartments, 
with fine crops of finely coloured fruit. Nectarines are valued much, and 
in numbers are nearly equal to the Peaches. Trellises about 4 feet from 
the glass are covered with very healthy trees, only planted three years ago. 
The soil in which these Irees were planted was mostly taken from the vege¬ 
table garden, mixed with a quantity of lime rubbish, and a goodly portion of 
Thomson’s Vine and plant manure rammed firmly, so we were told. The 
results are of the most satisfactory character. Figs of several kinds were 
a heavy crop on a portion of the back wall of each compartment. The 
hack walls are cemented, painted, and wired, cleanliness being a speci¬ 
ality here. The Peaches valued most are Hale’s Early, Early Crawford, 
Royal George, Bellegarde, Barrington, Dr. Hogg, Violette B&tive, Belle 
Bauce, and Sea Eagle. 
Nectarines are represented by Pitmaston Orange, Hardwicke Seedling, 
Victoria, Murray, Violette Hative, Elruge, and some others. Passing to 
the vineries, enormous crops "f fine fruit presented themselves. For early 
use large bunches of Black Hamburgh, Foster’s Seedling, Muscat Ham¬ 
burgh, and Buckland Sweetwater are represented. The berries of the 
Hamburghs and a Vine of Madresfield Court, ripening a fine crop, were of 
large size, and most of them finely coloured. The soil for the Vines is 
much the same as for the Peaches, with less lime rubbish and more of the 
Vine manure in it. Other soil come-at-able was not used, but surface 
taken from the old kitchen garden, spread out and well frozen, is the 
chief portion of the substance. For succession crops, Muscats, Gros 
Maroc, Gros Colman, Gros Guillaume, &c,, are grown, and such crops as 
called forth our censure ; hut we were shown that the heavy impost was on 
supernumerary Vines which have been cropped heavily for three 
years, and most of them are to be discarded next year, leaving the per¬ 
manent rods to do the work. Latest crops to give supplies from February 
to May are represented by White Tokay, Gros ■Guillaume, Gros Colman, 
Alicante, and Lady Downe’s, the latter being valued most if all, retaining 
its flavour, plumpness, and colour to the last. A portion of the gardener’s 
office has been lately apportioned for late Grapes ; this spacious room is 
heated by hot water, and can he used for the Gi apes if desired, but during 
the late winter the heat was seldom turned on. There are good and 
spacious erections for storing fruit, Onions, &c., over the workmen’s sheds. 
A capital Mushroom house with slate shelves, and spaces with iron sliding 
doors in which Seakale is forced, packing sheds, and other structures are 
in a range. There is also, for the benefit of visitors, ladies’ and gentle¬ 
men’s rooms elegantly fitted up and heated with hot water. A till 
chimney at some distance takes the smoke from the furnaces, and around 
this is finely planted with specimen Scarlet, CrimsoD, and White Thorns, 
double Cherries, numbers of Brooms, Rhododendron boxes, &c., forming 
an undergrowth. Many large Thorns are in a line ; they are very pictur¬ 
esque, and of great age. Several of the largest Willows which we have 
seen help to represent the antiquity of this very interesting place. There 
are shortly to be erected several other ranges of glass structures for plants 
and fruits, which will complete a garden establishment worthy of the 
proprietors, who very justly hold positions of the most estimable character 
throughout the district. The gardener’s house, mostly new, is an excellent 
one, and already nearly covered with Ivy to match the ancient character 
of the surroundings. 
This concludes our notes of a very interesting place where much has 
been done well, skilfully, and in good taste. Passing outward we were 
shown a small whitewashed red-tiled cottage, where one of Scotia’s noblest 
sons spent nine years of bis boyhood—we refer to the late Dr. Moffat, the 
famous African missionary, and father-in-law to the late Dr. Livingstone. 
These names will be held with loving admiration throughout all Christen¬ 
dom as long as the world lasts. This small obscure cottage added greatly 
to the interest of our very pleasant outing to Carron House, where we 
experienced the greatest kindness and courtesy.—J. R. D. 
FRUIT versus WOOD BUDS. 
Fruit “ trees replanted in November blossomed more profusely the 
following April than others of the same kind, size, and age in the same 
row did that were not disturbed.” This is “ special information.” In four 
months of winter wood buds, by some unknown process, were transformed 
into blossoms five times more in number than in the case of the undis¬ 
turbed trees. Napoleonic I The metamorphosis is truly Herculean. 
Yet your erudite correspondent has “ nothing to alter or withdraw, every¬ 
thing advanced being strictly accurate.” His averment that wood buds 
change from November so as to blossom in April of the following year 
can only place him in the “ conspicuous position of standing alone in oppo¬ 
sition to most, if not all, scientific pomologists in Europe,” and allow me to 
add the world. I am equally convinced of the contrary of my fertile 
friend’s deductions. The buds of fruit trees when the leaves fall are 
either wood buds or fruit buds, and so they remain during the winter, 
undergoing no change whatever, and not even “ when the conditions are 
favourable.” The admission by me, that lifted trees sometimes blossomed 
more freely in spring than those that had not been lifted in autumn, 
admits of no such interpretation as that put upon it. The fruit buds 
were there present in embryo when the leaves fell, though not so pro¬ 
minent or developed as to mark their distinction from wood buds, and I 
mentioned the fact, as I thought, to aid your correspondent in account¬ 
ing for his metamorphosis doctrine. Those buds, latent or otherwise, 
underwent no change, they were imperfectly developed fruit buds, the 
wood bud not sufficiently arrested early enough in the summer to have 
concentrated upon it the elaborated and assimilated nutriment trans¬ 
mitted by the leaves. What is a fruit hud ? Certainly something more 
definite than an “arrested” wood bud. A fruit bud is the embryonic leaves of 
a hud transformed into calyx, corolla, and staminate organs, the embryonic 
shoot changed into ovary and pistillate organs, a concentration of the 
vital forces on the organs of reproduction which otherwise are expended 
ingrowth. This, my “standing alone” critic avers is due to the check, 
the arresting of growth. Arresting the growth in November, when prac¬ 
tically there is none, “ causes the change”—the metamorphosis of wood buds 
in November to blossom in April. Quick work. Hannibal never excelled 
i r , and we know what became of his big batallions, they perished beneath 
the snow. It is only when food is transmitted by the roots of fruit trees, 
elaborated and assimilated in the leaves, and concentrated on the buds 
during growth, that the change from a wood to a fruit bud occurs. 
But “ let the check given be what may be termed violent,” continues my 
ponderous critic, “ and the trees will make scarcely any growth, but 
practically all the buds will become blossom buds.” When ? Between 
November and April. I submit the “violent” check will not cause a 
single blossom more to show in April than exists as a fruit bud in Novem¬ 
ber. I thank your esteemed correspondent for the admi sion of some 
growth being necessary— i.e., leaves being present for the transformation 
of a wood into a fruit bud, sap elaborated and a'similated, and concen¬ 
trated in the buds, which obviously cannot take place in the buds of a 
leafless tree, more especially a “replanted ” one, in November during the 
winter. 
In Nature it is “age” that “arrests growth,” states my “analyst,” 
“ causes a cessation of extension.” “ Arrested growth ” in Nature is 
more likely to be effected by heat and drought, a diminution of supplies. 
By the August re:triction with f diage we get fruit buds prominent in 
November, and a good blossom the following March or April, and a 
corresponding crop if fruit twelve months, or soon after we made the 
restriction ; and I have proved mauy times that by the November 
restriction we get no addition to the fruit buds of any value, latent or 
imperfectly developed fruit buds not giving perfect blossoms in the April 
following. This is a phase of the subject your able correspondent evi¬ 
dently seems “ lacking in experience.” It does not matter whether I 
am “an old hand” or “a youngish man,” as we must all, or ought to, 
be measured by that iufallible of standards—viz., “ practice and results.” 
Restrict early, lift, replant whilst the trees have foliage, the leaves will 
clench the argument, “settle the matter” as to the character of the 
buds at their base, or those they surround, as in a spur of a Pear, &c., 
with a certainty of getting active feeders—a full supply of nutriment to 
the blossom and fruit in the ensuing season. 
As for “replanting ” in November, I have only to say that it is most 
general, simply because most convenient, and with inexperienced culti¬ 
vators most safe. It is sound, too, for carefully and judiciously performed 
the fruit of the ensuing season will be little prejudiced, and in twelve 
months from the November of replanting the bloom buds will assuredly 
be “ five times” more than on the unliftcd trees. Anybody can tell nine 
fruit buds out of ten that will not only blossom in April, hut give an 
abundant crop of fine fruit in due season, contingent, of course, on the 
“ conditions being favourable.” If the “fruit” buds cannot be seen in 
November they are “good for nothing.” Let that pass. “ A Thinker ” 
plays on the latent or imperfectly developed buds I admitted were not 
thought fruit buds in November developing blossoms in spring as ad¬ 
mitting the fact of the change of a wood bud to a fruit bud by replanting 
in November. I admit nothing of the sort. I stated that if the blossoms 
were had from latent or imperfectly developed fruit buds not distinguish¬ 
able from wood buds in November, they were practically of no fruiting 
value. To that I adhere. But your correspondent makes the astounding 
statement, “ Whether they are fertile or sterile obviously does not invali¬ 
date the change that undoubtedly takes place in the character of the 
buds.” How many owners of Apple, Pear, Plum, and Cherry trees have 
nothing beyond the sight of blossom to repay them, and not only this 
one year hut many ? Such, I fancy, see a difference between the value of 
blossom and fruit—between sterility and fertility. With reference to 
the “ wood ripening ” I have nothing more to add. On the question of 
Asparagus I have nothing further to place before your readers at present. 
I thank Mr. S. Castle for his courteous recognition, and though not having 
enlisted him fully, it is quite clear he leans to the tide of the “ big 
batallions.”— G. Abbey. 
HEATING BY HOT WATER. 
[Read before the Members of the Preiton and Fulwood Floral and Hortieultnral 
Society, August 7th.] 
( Continued from page 175.) 
Arrangement of the Pites in the Houses. —The pipes in the 
houses, if practicable, should all be on the same level or as nearly so 
as possible—that is, after they rise from the mains to the desired level. 
It would be very difficult to lay down any hard-and-fast rule as to 
the arrangement of the pipes inside the houses, because '.hey are of 
such varied shapes and utilised for such a variety of purposes. The 
piping ueed should not be placed altogether, but disposed over the 
house as evenly as the internal arrangements will allow. If the pipes 
are fixed on the gradual rising principle, which is the one most gene¬ 
rally practised, they may be allowed to rise about one-quarter of an 
inch in each 9 feet length of pipe. Some contend that twice or even 
three times this rise is necessary to insure or aid circulation. This is 
