August 20, 1891. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTACxE GARDENER. 
149 
I T would be difficult to find a day in the year when home-grown 
fruit could not be found in abundance in the great nurseries 
of Messrs. T. Rivers & Son. Before Apples and Pears are over 
Peaches and Nectarines are in, then follow Cherries, Plums, and 
Grapes, while Oranges appear to be ready for gathering always, 
and all other fruits in their season. There were several sights in 
the way of fruit to be seen last week, and some if not most of 
them astonished not a little a gentleman who has seen a great deal 
in town and country, Mr. Eagleton, clerk to the Fruiterers’ 
Company. Never before had he seen such collections of Pears, 
Apples, and Plums plunged to their rims in pots outdoors, the trees 
laden with splendid fruit, giving rise to a sense of wonder how they 
and the crops could be so well supported from such a small bulk of 
soil. This feeling was perhaps intensified on entering the simple but 
in all respects efficient orchard houses—the sides of posts and boards 
—the roofs of glass—in which magnificent Apples, Pears, Plums, 
Peaches, and Nectarines were approaching the ripening stage— 
trees from 6 to 12 feet high carrying from a dozen to four 
times as many fruits, and making the healthiest of growths 
as well, showing not the faintest signs of exhaustion. “ Rooted 
through I suppose,” was the remark of one of the visitors, 
as if to display his knowledge of the “way things are done;” but he 
was met with a prompt “ Oh, no ! lift up the pots.” As this was 
done it was clear that all the roots were strictly confined in them, 
and in fact several were elevated on other pots, and the “ rooting 
through ” notion was banished. Heavy top-dressings of kiln dust 
and manure, rising an inch or two above the rims of the pots, no 
doubt gave much support, but all the same the splendid condition 
of the trees in wood, foliage, and fruit teach a lesson in cultivation, 
and set the mind a thinking whether many fruit tree borders are 
not made needlessly large and deep. With a mass of fibres within 
a short radius of the stems and adequate support of the right kind 
the healthiest of growth is produced and the finest of fruit. 
Though the Sawbridgeworth soil, calcareous loam of sound 
texture, is naturally good for fruit, Peach trees planted out bear no 
comparison in respect to health and the value of their crops with 
those grown in pots. It may be expected that liquid manure, such 
as soot water, is applied to the potted trees, and this being so the 
atmosphere must be more liberally charged with ammonia and 
carbonic dioxide than would otherwise be the case, and the trees 
derive nourishment accordingly through the foliage. It was 
noticed that the atmosphere was genial, with the suspicion of a 
pleasant pungency, and the ashes on which the pots stand were 
damp. In such case, however free the ventilation, the atmosphere of 
the house is genial, for vapour rises the more freely in consequence 
of the ventilation when the external air is dry. The circulation 
of air in, the houses in question is full and free, the light has full 
and free action on the leaves, and the evaporation rising from the 
damp but not saturated base, charged as it is with more than , the 
ordinary quantity of gases that are nourishing to vegetation, must 
be absorbed by the leaves to the benefit of the trees. 
As he has indicated by a recent note in the Journal of Horti. 
culture , Mr. Rivers is clearly of opinion that his trees receive 
nourishment through the foliage. There cannot be a doubt on 
the point. Leaves absorb liquids freely, by their under surfaces 
especially, and both ammonia and carbonic dioxide are appropriated, 
No. 582.—Von. XXIII,, Third Series. 
and from the ammonia at least some part of the essential nitrogen 
that plants obtain is thus derived, as ammonia consists of one 
equivalent of nitrogen to three of hydrogen. Carbonic dioxide 
(one equivalent of carbon to two of oxygen) is absorbed freely by 
leaves, as Boussingault proved by experiment, the air coming in 
contact with Yine leaves being speedily deprived of the whole of 
that gas. It is undoubtedly of benefit to them in larger quantitic £ 
than is contained in th9 atmosphere, and only in excess is it 
injurious, as in the case of close frames on hotbeds when the 
manure has not been sufficiently purified. Ammonia in excess is- 
also injurious, as has been often discovered by introducing too 
fresh and strong manure for mulching in fruit houses, whereas 
smaller quantities are decidedly beneficial. 
Mr. Davis attributes the healthy condition of the splendid Vi ne¬ 
at Manresa House in part to the judicious use of fresh horser 
manure frequently scattered in small quantities on the narrow 
border over which the quarter of a mile in length of rods are 
trained to the roof, but thick dressings at one time proved in¬ 
jurious. The leaves are dark, thick, and entirely free from insects. 
The cleanliness and remarkable health and crops of fruit on Mr. 
Rivers’ fruit trees in pots must be to a material extent due to the 
nourishment they derive from the atmosphere, and they could not 
be in anything like the same satisfactory state if the floors of the 
houses were as dry as are those in many vineries, Peach and 
Melon houses, in which Vines, trees, and plants bear better crops 
of insects than fruit. 
Many of the Peach and Nectarine trees in the Sawbridgeworth 
houses are models in training—perfectly formed pyramids 12 or 
14 feet high, with the branches a foot apart, or thereabouts, from 
base to summit, and these laden with fruit. The trainer has good 
reason to be proud of them, but, as Mr. Rivers points out, naturally 
grown standard trees, with their heads near the glass, are the most 
profitable, as they need no training, but merely thinning to prevent 
overcrowding. Such trees were bearing heavily well coloured 
and excellent fruit, as were Apricots grown in the same easy way. 
The large house of posts and boards for sides and ends has been 
built nearly forty years, and is still in sound and good condition. 
It must have been an extremely proStable house, as though net 
heated, the trees in it have never failed to bear full crops of fruit. 
Hundreds of Peaches and Nectarines in 8 and 9-inch pots have 
long since been deprived of their crops, and are now in the open 
air ripening their wood, or, rather, it is thoroughly ripe. From 
these two or three-year-old trees fruits were gathered and sold for 
48s. a dozen early in the season. Of course they were forced, but- 
that is not all, for the varieties are much earlier than any in com¬ 
merce, and one of the Nectarines especially, Eirly Rivers, leaves 
Lord Napier and all others a long way behind in ripening, as well 
as in size and colour. It will perhaps be distributed before very- 
long, or when it has given a recompense by the fruit sold for the 
years that must elapse in raising fruit trees, weeding out, and 
proving the merits of those retained. Mr. Rivers can write books., 
and the law prevents others from increasing them, but when his- 
new fruits are placed in the market those who purchase may 
increase them as fast as they like or can. Naturally he dce3 not 
think the law consistent, but there it is, and as it is not very likely 
to be altered very soon, he shapes his course accordingly. 
The engraving (fig. 24, page 159) of the Nectarine referred to 
exactly corresponds in size and form with a fine fruit from which 
it was prepared, and is a correct representation, as is the tree on 
which it was grown. The fruit is even in outline, with a distinct 
though shallow suture, terminating at the apex in a blunt pointed 
nipple. Skin bright red, except at the base and near the stalk. 
Flesh greenish yellow, succulent, briskly and richly flavoured. This- 
fine Nectarine ripens three weeks before Lord Napier. 
Some of the Plums in pots are beautiful objects. Monarch 
(Rivers) vertical cordons are roped with large bluish purple fruit. 
Th : s is a Plum of the future—a Plum with “money in it for 
No. 2238 —Vol. LXXXV., Old Series, 
