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1874. ] OECIIARD-HOUSES AND THEIR PRODUCE. 
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dines, tlie pit must be kept gradually warmer, until tlie beads begin to show for 
bloom, wben tlie plants must be removed to the stove, and still be liberally treated, 
to bring the bracts to perfection. The Poimettia is a gross feeder, and should not 
be allowed to flag, or the leaves will fall. The beauty of the plant depends in a 
great measure on the presence of abundant healthy foliage to set off the 
gloriously-coloured bracts. 
The so-called white variety is useful as a contrast, and flowers rather later than 
the species. It does not appear to be generally known that plants from seed sown in 
spring will flower in the autumn by allowing them to run up a single stem with¬ 
out a check. I find the seedlings vary in shade and foliage, and I anticipate 
further improvements. Both Messrs. Veitch and Mr. Bull are sending out dis¬ 
tinct and useful varieties, one earlier, the other later than the type ; and I see 
no reason why we should not produce striped or mottled varieties, by impregnating 
the red with the white, and vice versd. —J. W. Laurence, Farnham Castle, 
ORCHAKD-HOUSES AND THEIR PRODUCE. 
JNE more paper will exhaust my subject, and I will devote it to a detail of 
a year’s course of culture and its results. 
I will commence with November. Nothing remains in the house but 
the late grapes. The trees are again bare, and every wet and uncomfort¬ 
able day is devoted to their pruning and arrangement. The sap being down, 
water is altogether withheld, and everything goes into its winter rest. Then 
comes the important process of mulching, which here means a heavy dressing of 
the strongest unfermented manure I can command. I use the scrapings of a 
large farm-yard where only corn-fed cattle are stalled; old hot-bed refuse is not 
sufficiently effective. Early in January the fruit-buds begin to swell, and with 
the starting of the wood-buds into life, I realise the coming advantage of the 
mulching, for the surface-roots, by luxuriating in the rich food prepared for 
them, occasion such a rapid circulation of sap, that every bud becomes a shoot, 
establishing by its rapid growth a health and luxuriance which defy the aphis 
tribe, and save all the trials of washing, fumigating, and hand-picking. 
I now give the first watering through fine-rosed watering-pots. The quantity 
is moderate, and just enough to moisten the surface. A fortnight later the 
whole surface of the house must be saturated. At this stage special attention 
must be paid to ventilation, and until the young fruit can be pronounced safe, 
the front sashes must never be opened ; and when they are, attention is required 
to prevent the mischief of the cold draughts which accompany a suddenly over¬ 
cast sky in the spring months. Daily syringing is indispensable to prevent the 
ravages of the red-spider, and to furnish the atmosphere which all trees grown 
under a fixed roof require. 
And then comes the harvest. From the Strawberries of May to the Victoria 
Nectarine (Rivers) of September 29th, I am never without fine .fruit in full 
abundance. My crop of 1873 will substantiate this, for besides furnishing 
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