October 13. THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 21 
merit; and I should not have alluded to it here, but for 
the purpose of pointing to the much greater simplicity 
of my course of practice. I shall, however, refer to the 
matter in a future paper, and recapitulate, for the benefit 
1 of fresh readers, the chief maxims in leaf and brancli- 
1 management. 
I may now, perhaps, be permitted to state the con¬ 
dition of the Peaches and Nectarines here treated for 
j many years as above described; and if I must praise 
them, I hope it will not be considei-ed egotistic, as my 
i object is to recommend, more strongly still, the course of 
culture pursued for several years past. I find, by my 
book, that I have already gathered about 917 Peaches 
and Nectarines of good quality, from a length of wall, 
I 150 feet long by 9 feet high ; and there are some 200 or 
300 remaining. The crop, indeed, has been so excellent 
as to leave nothing to desire. But I cannot remember 
the time when we had a bad crop; and during the last 
! four or five years they have been so very plentiful that 
it is scarcely worth while to point to any one season. 
I The trees, in general, are now about twenty years old, 
! and they are clothed, and bear to the very collar, not 
one brick on the wall they cover being wholly visible. 
| Another point; the shoots, on all portions of the trees, 
are so equal, that gardeners are sometimes puzzled to 
find neither luxuriant nor weak shoots. Those who 
] have not seen them, would be apt to fancy the picture 
overcharged, but it is not so; and I merely depicture 
I their character, to show that the clamour that exists 
about the necessity for hot walls and glazed structures is 
most extravagant. 
That Peaches and Nectarines may be grown earlier' in 
glazed structures, or artificial beat, is undeniable; that 
the blossoms may be easier secured, I admit; but to in¬ 
fer from this that they cannot be generally depended 
on from the open wall, I as stoutly deny; indeed, the 
full crops here for years at once gives it the denial. But 
somehow, in chatting with persons who have had great 
failures, and I have talked with many during the last 
year or two, they nearly all insist that this is a peculiarly 
damp or cold locality; how is this when they are from 
the four points of the compass? One complains loudly 
that his garden is so high that every wind reaches him ; 
another, that his locality is so low that the air is always 
damp ! By this it would appear that those only who 
live half-way down any given incline are in a fortunate 
position. Surely this kind of evidence would not fit in 
a court of justice. 
The fact that we, in this quarter, had 22 degrees of 
frost on the night of the 20th or 27th of March, when 
our Peaches were nearly in full bloom, under canvass 
covering, and that a crop set and swelled as thick as 
I ever knew, surely is strong evidence that something 
may be done out-of-doors ; and as for favoured localities, 
why ours neither is, nor can be, of so peculiarly a coax¬ 
ing character. As far north as Manchester, and as near 
to the Irish Channel that our window sills have before 
now had a saline deposit on them from the sea; these 
are surely not indicative of a Devon or Cornish climate! 
But it is useless to tamper with a question which, 
after all, lies in a narrower compass than many will 
admit. After all, the difference in localities, whatever 
stress is sought to be laid on this point, is not, by any 
means, so great as has been represented : that is to say, 
admitting that for the locality in question, the cultivator 
is prepared with such appliances as canvass covering, &c., 
Nevertheless, I should like to know whether canvass can 
be expected to ensure a crop of fruit on a tree with badly- 
ripened wood; or, if you will, crippled ilower-buds? 
What would a great market-gardener in the suburban 
districts of the great Metropolis say to an investment, in 
the shape of half-a-dozen acres of Onions, from seed 
which he had seen growing in a country far north, and 
half-ripened in September? Would he expect to pay 
rents and taxes from such prospects? I fancy not. 
Now, although by close consideration, something more 
highly illustrative might be found, yet this, to really 
experienced men, will throw light on the affair; or, 
indeed, the same may be said of any crop which naturally 
ripens late, and, under awkward circumstances, imper¬ 
fectly. And what may be expected of Peach or 
Nectarine trees, which are rambling away, and producing 
breast-wood in October ? This will always be the case 
with deep and overpowerful soil. 
Now, there is a vast difference between a tree growing 
in nearly a yard in depth of rich soil, without top-dressing, 
and one in eighteen inches deep of a free loam, ivith 
annual top-dressing ; whatever the results may be, the 
most uninformed will readily perceive that the two 
cases differ widely, and that different results must, of 
necessity, take place. And what results ? Why, in the 
first case, the tree with deep roots can never receive 
the slightest check from drought; if the solar rays 
are any benefit to soils, its roots are not in a posi¬ 
tion equal to the second case to receive benefits from 
them. In the second case, the whole volume of roots 
are, of course, more within the solar influence in a 
higher degree ; and, moreover, it will be found, that by an 
annual surface-dressing of roots, a complete layer of new 
fibres, or net-work, is formed annually; and this net¬ 
work is much more susceptible than the ordinary roots 
of either, as to extra sustenance, in the hour of need, in 
the shape of liquid-manure, or a temporary check, when 
requisite, through drought. Here lies the gist of the 
whole affair; and, strange to say, though I have talked 
to scores of persons, in this way, for the last half-dozen 
years, I am not assured that half-a-dozen of them fully 
understood or appreciated—what I must consider—the 
importance of the matter; they generally go away with 
a sort of half recognition of these principles : few differ 
from them, and as few get fairly warmed with the 
subject. 
Now objections cannot be on the score of trouble. 
Had I space, I could soon show that my practice causes 
much less trouble ; not that I would judge every assumed 
improvement in horticulture on the score of trouble 
(done; although what is termed extra trouble generally 
means extra labour, and this assuredly is not the chief 
requisite in modern improvements; such are scarcely 
recognised in these days unless marked by a high 
degree of simplification, and, by consequence, economy. 
Let it not, however, be understood that I repudiate 
the propriety of erecting glazed structures for a 
higher degree of cultivation in our superior fruits. 1 
am quite aware that some persons may conclude that 
such is the case ; but it is not so. I verily believe that 
much may be done this way in these days of cheap 
glass, bricks, &c. But I do hold it a duty incumbent 
on those who pretend to assist in furnishing ideas to a 
public—too busy in the main to attend to the minutiae 
of practical professionals—to nicely distinguish such 
matters, and so to separate the parts of any given 
question, as, in the language of our bluff sailors, 
to “ let every tub stand on its own bottom.” So, 
that whilst I attempt to prove that Peaches and Nec¬ 
tarines may bo grown with certainty on our open 
walls, in at least three-parts of this kingdom, I also 
think, that all those who can afford it will do well to 
possess themselves of an orchard-house, covered walls, 
oi', it may be, such structures as Ewing’s glass walls; 
although about the latter I have no experience; they 
require a little farther trial before a safe judgment can 
be pronounced. The trial now going on in the Horti¬ 
cultural Gardens, and some other places, will tend 
speedily to decide the question. 
I intend, during the rest season, to look into the 
question of glazed structures, and the character and 
needs of those fruits which arc likely to become candi- 
