226 
THE FLORIST. 
ORCHARD HOUSES—CULTURE. 
• 
We shall have to dispense with walls for Peaches and Nectarines at 
any rate, and probably tor Apricots, and by-and-bye our south walls 
will be occupied by Pears, as they are now at Heckfield and other 
places—a wise economy, and one perfectly justifiable on the grounds of 
the precarious nature of the Peach crop. 
When glass was a costly object, indulging in glass erections was con¬ 
sidered much in the same light as keeping hounds or a yacht— i.e.y 
entailing a large annual expense, and as such confined to the wealthy, 
who only might enjoy the luxuries they produced. The times have 
changed much within even the last quarter of a century, and since the 
duty has been taken off glass, and free trade in it established, it has 
opened up a wide field of enjoyment for professional men and the 
middle classes of society, who can now have their own glass erections— 
their greenhouse, pit, and orchard-house—appended to their establish¬ 
ment, coming within their means for keeping up, and entailing no great 
expense in the first cost. We shall look through these several items of 
country-life enjoyment, to show what may be done with them, what 
they will cost, and what is the best plan of construction, in the hope that 
some of our readers may profit by our remarks, or at any rate may 
compare them with the opinion of others who instruct in the same line, 
and draw therefrom their own conclusions. 
If we have any readers anxious to commence at once with growing 
the Peach (by which please to understand the Nectarine and Apricot, 
as regards culture, will be included), say next season, of course plants 
with fruit-buds on them will be required, and we will suppose these 
will have to be purchased in the autumn in the ordinary way, and 
potted for a twelvemonth before they are in a state to bear fruit, unless 
you go to the expense of buying ready prepared trees, which are costly, 
and which, to furnish a house, would cause an outlay equal to the building 
itself. We say, therefore, do this, and save your cash. Go to a nursery 
and look out your stock—good strong maidens with plenty of lateral shoots, 
if down to the stock, so much the better; buy your trees as they stand, 
they will rarely exceed I 5 . each, and when you have marked them 
as your own, cut the leading branch down to (say) from 6 ft. to 3 ft. 6 in., 
according to their strength. There will then remain, probably, 
from five to eight or nine laterals, springing from the main shoot headed 
down, and these should all be shortened back one-third of their length. 
These trees will look something rather stumpy compared with those 
unpruned ; but never mind, this pruning back will induce the forma¬ 
tion of blossom-buds on the lateral shoots, and we shall be enabled to 
show you that many of these trees, if the present season proves a 
favourable one, will produce you fruit next year. If the trees are 
growing in what is called a quarter, thick together, pick out the outside 
ones, that the sun and air may more readily act upon them, to further 
your wishes in respect to fruitful buds. There are also to be met with 
in nurseries, cut-back trees of the Peach, which have not been well 
formed for training, and are allowed to grow for buds; these have gene¬ 
rally four or five strong shoots, and as they are a year older than the 
