April 5, IS6A ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER 
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advantage Ilian to submit it to materials which it can barel 3 ' exist on, or 
•■are absolutely injurious to the roots or branches. Here we have the 
■command of a good cattle yard for making, but for all that we buy 
many hundredweights of artificial manure annually, as it is easily 
•applied ami excellent in its results. Artificial manures are admirably 
adapted for use by amateurs, as they can be conveniently stored away in 
a small space. Plants in greenhouses and conservatories may be surface 
dressed with them without interfering with the enjoyment of the 
flowers, and when converted into liquid manure a lady may apply them. 
They mav be used with advantage in three ways : first as liquid, second 
as a surface-dressing, and third mixed amongst the soil used for potting 
or sowing or planting in, and if properly applied they will prove highly 
remunerative and satisfactory.—J. M. 
THE ORCHARD HOUSE. 
[A lecture delivered at Birniinj<liam on t] e 13th inst., by T. Franciti R vers, Esq.] 
( Conti/vricd from page 257.) 
For gardens where there is not room enough for the 2-1 feet span 
the 14 feet will be found very productive and manageable. It will hold 
two rows on each side, and these should be half-standards and bushes. 
There will be the same convenience for sheltering trees until the summer, 
and in every respect, except in size, the houses are the same in manage¬ 
ment. There remains now to be considered the third form, which I am 
iifraid has caused more disappointment than any other, and this because 
of its extreme simplicity and the obvious facility with which it can be 
erected. Walled gardens are plentiful enough, but crops of fruit from 
them are not so ; lentiful, and the often disappointed owner of such a 
wall, at the time of the publication of the “ Orchard House,” had a solu¬ 
tion of the problem suddenly presented to him. What can be so easy 
«s fixing rafters against a wall an l covering it with glass ? There is the 
front protection and the back wall, and the thing is done. It looks easy, 
:and the house when finished is bright and pleasant. A very slight in¬ 
crease of the temperature outside raises the interior to an early summer 
heat, and it is a very agreeable lounge. Unfortunately, these hopes 
were often fallacious. The builder had forgotten the main point of the 
orchard house—viz., thorough ventilation. The angle formed at the 
base of the back wall and the area of the floor never secured or provide 1 
a complete circulation, consequently the air became stagnant, and the 
insect pests of all glass houses soon showed their ill-omened presence, 
this was very unfortunate for the system, as lean-to houses were so 
■simple, with boarded sides and backs the ventilation of course could be 
amply provided for, b .t people were often unwilling to break holes into 
Torick walls. This difficulty is now, I am glad to say, easily removed, by 
the very simple plan of conveying air from the outside through fi-inch 
glazed drain pipes with open sockets at intervals of fi feet. I was led to 
Adopt this plan by the difficulty of ventilating the basement of a lean-to 
house, the experiment has succeeded perfectly, and possesses the great 
merit of economy. The drain pipes are not dear, and can be laid by any 
labourer at the tritlinr cost of excavation, no cement being required, 
.a slab of slate or board will close the outer ventilator, and all ingress 
■of air is at once stopped, the great convenience of ventilating thoroughly 
in windy weather will be soon appreciated by those who try this system. 
The lean-to orchard house 14 feet wide will take four rows of trees, two 
•on each side of the centre path, the trees on the back row may be 
pyramids or half-standards, .as there will be ample head room. It must 
be understood that in all these orchard houses the floors must not be 
paved, concreted, or flagged. It is absolutely necessary that the soil 
should be free for evaporation, the paths being gravellel. There is one 
■very important point in the construction of orchard bouses, and th.at 
is the suppl}'- of water, this cannot be dispensed with, and unless it 
can be easily and cheaply obtained it would be useless to spend money 
in building, as the work would be hopeless. 
The question of soil must be considered very carefully by the 
orchard-house cultivator, as upon the quality which he uses will depend 
■all, or much of his success. I think that I must consider myself, for¬ 
tunate that I have a soil in which the Peach fruits admirably, and this 
is a calcareous loam. Where it can be obtained there is nothing better. 
I prepare this for potting by throwing it in a ridge about nine months 
before using, mixing at the ti.ne of ridging about one-third of its bulk 
of good stable manure, and about a month before potting this soil 
should be placed in a dry shed, another third of ■well decayed manure 
being again mixed with it. If the soil is very tenacious, calcareous sand 
is an excellent material to use, for lessening this defect. The soil being 
prepared, the next operation is the potting, and this again, althou h ap¬ 
parently a very simple operation, requires some e.xperience. Hymen, 
who are strong and hearty, and capable of hard hitting, ram tlic soil 
round the roots and in the pot with an instrument similar in size and 
weight to a policeman's truncheon, with all the vigour which a man 
can use when he has to work all day. One of the most fertile causes of 
failure in the early days of the orchard house, was the tendency to avoid 
this hard ramming on the supposition that the roots would not push 
their way through the soil, a notion completel.v erroneous. 
The pots to be used fororchanl hou.se trees are by no means toys, being 
from 11 inches to 18 inches in diameter, acording lo t’ue size and age of 
the tree. Good drainage must be provided, otherwi.se the soil will be sour ; 
some large pieces of broken pots must then fore be placed at the bottom, 
the tree should not be too deeply potteil, the upper roots being level 
with the rim. Young roots will alwavs rise to the surface to feed, and 
will range round the side of the pot, showing the extraordinary attrac¬ 
tion caused by the warm air of the house. Before I leave the subject I 
m.ay here give the materials us ;d for surface dressing, another impor¬ 
tant feature of pot culture. From long experience I have found the 
most efficient top-dressina:, if it c.in be obtained, is hor.se manure free 
from straw, two-thirds, kiln du-t (not the malt combings) one-third, 
spread this in a bed about (i or !l inches deep and saturate it with cesspool 
water, use it the day after mixine. This mixture, if repeated during the 
summer will b-i found in the autumn as full of small i-oots as a ])eat bed. 
In addition to this surface dressing, trees that are beiring a full crop 
should be watereil withliqui.l manure from a tank as clos'3 to the h^juse 
as possible, this tank being supplied with a bag of soot for soaking, some 
rusty iron, and horse manure without straw renewed at frequent inter¬ 
vals ; the necessity of frequently supplying food by surface dressins and 
liquid m.anure iserident, the irropertyof water beingto carry off the sabs 
necessary for the trees. While treating of water 1 may as well refer to 
the very important subject of giving water to the trees, and common 
sense will suggest the mode of action. There is n ^) do-v and no water 
from the sky, and the syrimre must therefore supply the deficiency. Th's 
should be done morning and evening while the trees are in full growth. 
Trees out of doors, whether in bloom or not, are visited by sho'vers 
during the spring, and are not harmed by the heavy drenchings they 
occ.isionally endure, therefore there is no reason to supp)se that the 
same treatment will injure them under glass. August and September 
are usually dry months, and this will indicate the tr atment. The roots 
must not be allowed to be dry, but they sh.juld not be kept in a 
puddle. 
Another important branch of orchard house culture is the j-jcunin", 
and this must be governed by the age and condition of the tree. Ic 
healthy and well grown, a tree that will ripen from four to five ilozen 
fruit will produce blossoms enough for ten times this quantiU'. Wbi n 
pruning in winter this must be carefully borne in mind and the shoots 
reduced to a reasonable limit, care being taken to prune always to a 
triple or a leaf bud, vvhich will provide the fruiting branch of the ensuing 
year. Many varieties of Peaches and Nectarines are apt to pro.luce 
long, unfruitful shoots, as there are sorts of equal (juality which 
will give fruit spurs in abundance. I should advise the cultivator to 
grow these and avoid the others ; this is a point which will be soon 
understood by those who have the management of an extensive orchard 
house, and the stu ly of these variations will soon become very interesting. 
The individuality of my trees is of real interest to the manager, and the 
knovvledge of these peculiarities is of great value to the grower for 
market, as the sorts which furnish abundant fruit spurs and wood buds 
repiire less room than the stragglers ; umler the limited space of gla-s 
every inch of room is valuable. Pinching or ni[)ping, a very old 
and necessary practice, must be done while the shoots are teniler, the 
first, which is the most important, being performed at the fifth or 
seventh leaf from the base of the shoot ; this is generally practicable 
early in May, and must be pursued at intervals of three weeks or a 
month during the early summer, the object being to equalise and 
regulate the gro^vvth of the tree. 
I have hitherto confined my remarks to the cultivation of Peaches 
and Nectarines only, but our climate is not more liberal in the continuous 
production of other fruits. The Apricot perhaps is more difficult to grow 
than any other except in certain (iistricts in England, where, as I under¬ 
stand, the line of demarcation is very rigidly drawn and ceases with the 
absence of lime in the soil. It is a native of the dry and cold climate 
of Armenia, hence the name “ Armeniaca,” although the cold of this 
country is severe and enduring in winter, the summers are very hot, and 
this knowledge must guide the treatment umler glass. If placed in the 
same house with Peaches the .Apricot must have a special compartment 
which can be ventilate I freely as soon as the trees begin to show signs 
of developing their buds (is a rule they are easily excited), and then 
air must be freely given. In the soil an extr.i dose of lime must be 
aided, and as soon as they are in flower give air day and night, except 
of course during severe frost. The season of fruit mav^ be much pro¬ 
longed by ))lacing them out of doors. As with Peaches the h.irder the 
.soil the better tie Apricot flourishes, and although the remark may be 
made that these fruits are grafted on the Plum stock, which will grow 
in loose garden soils, yet it must be remembered that the el.iboration of 
the singularly hard and solid stones of the Peach ami Apricot is com¬ 
pleted by the tree, the stock being merely the vehicle. 
The next fruit of all others which requires glass is the Cherry, a 
native of a much warmer cliraaie than cither the Peach or Nectarine. 
My Cherry house, which has existed for some twenty-live years, is a 
span-roof, (iO feet long by 14 feet ■wide, and 1 ma}' say affords even 
greater ]> ensure than the Peach hou.se. It is not heated in any wa^'', but 
the Early Rivers Cherry begins to ripen about the first week in Juue, 
and for three months from this time I am never without J'lpc Cherries. 
The protection from birds, and from the heav}' summer r.iins which 
often spidl the finest croj), allows a development of flavour and size 
which is quite extraordinary, an i also permits the retention of the fruit 
on the tree long after the time of ripening. The Cherry will hang like 
the Grape, for weeks without any loss of flavour or aiipeai'anoc. In all 
respects the cultivation is the same as the Peach, except that the rii4e 
fruit will not bear the sj^ringe. 
The Plum comes next in order of orchard house fruit, and though 
compar.atively hardy, the finer kinds ai’c well worth culture umler glass, 
but there is no necessitj^ to retain them in the house after thoa' have 
set their fruit and are in no dang'er from spring frost. To those who 
care to afford the expense a wire house like an aviar\' should be con¬ 
structed to receive the trees destined for the open air. Th:s will keep 
