ipril 13, 1838. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
291 
M r. T. F. RIVERS’ essay on the Orchard House, the concluding 
portion of which appears on another page, is much too 
valuable to be confined toieven a large and intelligent Birmingham 
^audience, and we have had pleasure in according the important 
‘Contribution to gardening literature the wide circulation that it un¬ 
doubtedly merits. The subject is treated exhaustively ; indeed, 
no one hut Mr. Rivers could have prepared such an essay, because 
no one else has had anything approaching an equal experience in 
the routine of fruit culture under glass as it is conducted at Saw- 
bridgeworth. It is there the first orchard house was built plainly 
■and inexpensively, and the large structures with boarded sides and 
glazed span-roofs, erected tliirty years ago, still remain sound. 
There can he no doubt that a handsome profit has been derived 
from these simple yet serviceable erections by the sale of the fruit 
alone that has been raised in them, apart from the sale of trees ; 
■and it will be safe to say that if no trees were sold that this method , 
•of producing fruit of the first quality for market would be, as it 
has been, lucrative. Though the great majority who grow fruit do 
not do so as a means of income, but for home requirements and 
enjoyment, it is not the less satisfactory to know that the method 
■adopted is well founded, and this can only be determined on com¬ 
mercial principles. 
That the orchard house method of growing fruit, especially 
Peaches and Nectarines, as conducted at Sawbridgeworth is a dis¬ 
tinct success cannot be doubted by any person competent to form 
an opinion on the subject after inspecting the work in operation. 
But facts are more conclusive than opinions, and it is a very hard 
■fact that house is being added to house in this great emporium of 
trees and fruits, not for growing the former primarily for disposal 
as such, but chiefly for the crops they afEord, though the trees 
themselves that have had a sojourn under glass are essentially better 
and more fruitful than those grossm entirely in the open ; indeed, 
those grown in pots on the Rivers’ method are alone really suitable 
for orchard house culture. There is nothing grown to waste in 
these trees, for all growth that is not wanted is promptly sup¬ 
pressed, consequently all that remains is stout and hard, and at 
this season of the year covered with fine blossoms soon to be 
followed by far more fruit than the trees could perfect, however 
generously they might be treated. But new houses are being 
■erected for fruit production primarily, and this would not be done 
if the practice were not remunerative. It is true Mr. Rivers is a 
gentleman of property, and can afford to indulge in luxuries, and 
perhaps 'does indulge in them. His Orange culture is possibly a 
■source of enjoyment rather than of profit to him ; at least, as re¬ 
gards the crops, for the sale of young trees may sweeten the luxury, 
and of these there is no doubt the finest stock in Europe ; but in 
regard to Peach and Nectarine production in the houses erected 
and in the course of erection we see Mr. Rivers, as a man of 
business, observant of every detail, and watchful in every item of 
expenditure, studying simplicity and economy to the fullest extent 
consistently with efficiency, as closely,as if his daily bread depended 
on the work. This is strictly and severely a business matter, and 
the under-glass culture of trees in pots for the sake of the fruit 
produced is being extended for the best of all reasons—because it 
pays. 
Walls could be built for shelter and for providing warm 
No. 407.—VoL. XVI., Third Series. 
surfaces for fruit production, and Mr. Rivers would without doubt 
build them if he could rely on a good return for his outlay ; but he 
cannot. Walls have been tried and found wanting. Their cost is 
too great and the returns from them too uncertain to warrant his 
indulging in such costly luxuries ; and he prefers the shelter of 
orchard houses, whether as b,)undaries in lieu of walls or as inde¬ 
pendent structures in addition to them. The question of glazed 
boundaries to gardens is not new. It has been regarded as a fanciful 
notion ; but it is very much more than that, and cannot be dis¬ 
missed as visionary with a waive of the hand. A gentleman about 
to surround his garden with walls, after counting the cost and 
estimating probable results, changed his plans after inspecting 
glazed boundaries, and ascertaining the cost of erection and com¬ 
paring it with their capacity for producing fruit under good manage¬ 
ment with constancy. But the best evidence in favour of glass 
versus bricks, or in addition to a limited extent of masonry, is 
found in the great fruit-growing establishment of Mr. Philip Ladds 
at S svanley. The proprietor desiring boundary protection on two 
sides of his land might have built walls and covered them with fruit 
trees, but insteid of doing so he built span-roofed houses, one 
nearly 700 feet long] and the other upwards of 800 feet. These 
will give a good return ifor outlay and pay for themselves in a few 
years, but walls would not. Glazed boundaries are therefore not 
fanciful luxuries, but stern realities, and their extension is probably 
only a question of time. 
Any visitor to Sawbridgeworth a week ago would have been 
satisfied both with the attractiveness and usefulness of orchard 
houses. One, well heated, 230 feet long, was wholly occupied by 
Peach and Nectarine trees in pots, except two rows of young Vines 
growing vigorously on the hot water pipes along the side3. The 
trees in the centre are models of culture. They vary in size, but are 
uniform as regards health and crops, every tree studded with fruit 
the size of walnuts, and it is not too much to say the contents are 
worth more than the building, though it is substantial and nearly 
new. The sight presented by that house at the present time is, 
so far as we know, unequalled. In other houses where forcing is 
not resorted to the trees were in flower—dwarfs, standards, and 
pyi’amids—several of the latter about 9 feet high, pictures of 
beauty. A single row of 4-inch jiipes runs through most of the 
large houses, ’not for excluding frost in winter, but for drying the 
air in damp weather in autumn and spring. There is no trouble in 
any of these houses by the casting of the buds, whether the trees 
are planted out or not. Premature loss of leaves through the 
attacks of red spider in summer is one of the great causes of the 
evil, and is avoided. The ’ use of the camel-hair brush is resorted 
to for insuring a full set of fruit, and the crops in these houses 
never fail. Not an aphis is to be seen, and no plants allowed in 
the structures that are likely to communicate insects. One wa.s 
rendered sweet by masses of Wallflowers and Hyacinths, but Roses 
are excluded. Ants, which eat off the anthers of the blossoms, are 
baffled in a simple manner. The stems of the trees are encircled 
with 3-inch bands of chalk, this being rubbed on thickly, the 
particles are so loose that they fall as soon as touched by the feet 
of the little crawlers, and down they come as fast as they attempt 
the ascent. 
Some houses are entirely unheated, and in them Pears, Plums, 
and Apples have set their crops, and the trees which are in pots 
will be plunged outdoors to ripen, or the majority of them, for 
there is not room under glass for half of them to perfect their 
growth, and overcrowding is fatal to success in orchard house 
management.. 
The walk through the Orange house is a delightful promenade, 
there being a wealth of fragrant blossom, and golden fruits in 
abundance of a quality far excelling that of the best imported 
Oranges. The Cherry house with its boarded sides is unheated, 
and the ventilators open for retarding the blossom. The finest of 
Cherries are produced in this simple structure yearly, and a supply 
No. 2063.— VoL. LXXVIII., Old Series. 
