OcTOFiER IG. 
COUNTP.Y GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION. 
.‘O 
house nearly as much longer some day, so that the end 
shall reach the public road; and a better entrance to the 
; nursery, and a pleasant promenade, could hardly be 
desired. liike many other places that have out-grown 
their first dimensions, the present entrance is out of 
all proportion with the character the nursery is assuming. 
This huge house is still open at the ends, and is filled 
with fruiting-plants in pots; some ripening their wood, 
and older ones perfecting their fruit. Most of those 
who attended the London shows know how well small 
plants were fruited. I was too late to see many of the 
Peaches, except some late ones; one of these had from 
two to three dozen of middle-sized fruit hanging like 
ropes of Onions. To verify reports, T counted, on some 
plants not larger than a good-sized Fuchsia, the places 
from whence three or four dozen of ripe fruit had been 
taken. The old man, who particularly looks after the 
fruit-department, spoke, in the presence of others, who 
had counted them, of an Acton Scott Peach having from 
seven to eight dozen of ripe fruit. These larger plants 
were in 13-inch pots, and must have received a fair j 
amount of nourishment. There can be no question 
that, by pot-culture, a great saving in space can be se¬ 
cured, with the addition of an extra amount of labour in 
the shape of watering. Crops will, however, be more 
certain if due attention is given ; and quality and size i 
will depend upon the resolution to thin enough, d'o 
avoid mistakes, I may mention, that the earliest-fruited 
plants were not forwarded in this open house: I will 
presently mention under what circumstances. 
VINE PLANTING. 
The south-east side of the house is planted with Vines, 
consisting of all the known and heard of varieties of 
the Black Hamburgh. The canes have mostly all j 
reached the apex, so that in a couple of years they will 
begin to tell what they are. Mr. Lane says, that most 
likely he will build a wall beneath the wall-plate on 
that side, some day, and, perhaps, may use alternately 
some simple mode of heating. At pre.sent, some younkers 
j might get an idea on Vine border making. The Vines 
I are ])lanted outside. Seemingly, a plant or two of Arbor 
I Vila; have been removed, at equal distances, from what 
j seemed to have been a hedge. In these open places a 
I barrow-load, or a good armful of Fern seems to have 
i been laid down, and on that a mound erected of the 
j best top spit from the common, some two-and-a-half feet 
[ high, and from three to four feet in diameter, and on 
! these hillocks the A'^ines have thus grown vigorously; 
i more fresh soil will be added as needed. The whole of 
j the made border will thus be above the surface. 
I 
I SIZE OF SQUAKES FOR FIXED ROOFS. 
I I was nearly forgetting this. With swing sash-bars, 
the usual width has generally been twenty inches across, | 
, by twelve inches placed lengthwise. Last winter con- 
! vinced Mr. Lane that the width of twenty inches was 
too much, and he would now prefer having the sash-bars 
nearer, say fifteen or twelve inches, and making the 
squares longer the other way. I am imagining the size, 
I forget the one he thought best; but he said that the 
weight of the snow, last winter, broke and cracked a good , 
number of twenty-inch wide squares, while all those ' 
considerably narrower escaped. i 
ERICK ARNOTT’S STOVES. 
On the opposite side of the road, from the main 
entrance to the nurseries, are placed other grounds, pits, ! 
and bouses. To one of the houses I will for a moment j 
refer. I used to see the place occupied as a cold pit for ' 
Roses, and covered in winter with fern-thatched hurdles. ! 
It is now a low house, some fourteen feet wide and one , 
j hundred feet long, with a deep pathway in the centre, : 
I and an earthen platform on each side, at present filled 
I with Figs, Peaches, &c. The northern end either has 
not had a pathway, or it has been filled up, as the width 
j has been covered with saw-dust, and into that the ])ots 
i were plunged. Without describing the peculiarities of 
; the roof, the distinctive feature of the house is, that it | 
is built on the slojie of the ground, and not on the level, j 
I so that the extreme far end is about five feet higher than I 
: the near end, a matter of some importance, 1 believe, in [ 
i the mode of heating. The strong-built Arnoft’s stove is 
; placed at the near end, inside of the lowest part of the 
house, the smoke being conveyed about twenty feet near 
the top of the back wall of the house, in a zinc or 
galvanised iron tube, and then passing out tlirough the i 
back w'all. 'The stove is elevated to stand quite clear, j 
except on the side against the back wall, so that tlie ' 
cold air comes in beneath and around it, as fast as tlio { 
air in contact with the upper part gets rarified and i 
mounts upward. In a very short time tlie heated air | 
gets to the extreme of the lOU feet, and the heat, as j 
continually, keeps bringing the cold air along the decline 
of the pathway. It was intended to shut oft' the stove 
from the house, unless on one side, but the circulation was 
too languid. 'The door of the partition was left open, 
and, as the cold air could thus get all round the stove, 
the farthest extremity of the hundred feet soon got as 
warm as The air in the neighbourhood of the stove itself. 
As a proof of this, I was shown plants that had stood 
there, close to the stove, all the winter, quite uninjured. i 
As another proof, I may mention that the Peaches and 
Nectarines that perfected their fruit iu pots somewhat 
early, and those others tliat ripened in the end of 
August and the beginning of September, in the Orchard- 
house, had received a help by being placed at the fartbe]’ 
cud from the stove in the same sawdust where other 
plants are now plunged. With all our improvements, 
I what mode would beat this for economy and elliciency 
combined,—a hundred feet by fourteen leet heated by a j 
well-built brick Aruott’s stove, with a short metal pipe for t 
conveying away the smoke, and neither Hue nor water- I 
I pipe? Of course, it is understood the temperature was 
never raised high. 
I have exceeded my bounds; but there are many more 
things worth mentioning. For the sake of Rose-growers, 
permit me to add, that the large exhibition plants are 
plunged out-ofdoors in sawdust, &c., in summer, are 
j^otted afresh in September, pruned in November, and 
I housed before they are subjected to much frost. Young 
Boses, just potted, were being plunged in hotbeds out- 
of-doors to encourage rcot-action, and kceji the tops 
from being drawn. 'The beds were formed by keeping- 
rank dung below, and the wasted at the top. I must 
not say more; but that the antiquary, the lover of the 
picturesque and romantic, and lovers, too, iu the more 
general acceptation of the term, will spend a pleasant 
hour in surveying the ruins of 
BERKIIAMPSTEAD CASTLE, 
Or by whatever name it may be called. 'The railway 
sweeps past the base of what must have been an im- j 
pregnable keep in the days of Ethelbert and the Norman 
William. How great the contrast between then and 
now ! How striking the cliange from the bustle and 
clang of the railway, to these solitudes, iu which even 
the birds seem never to have been scared! The tops of 
the walls that bounded the three moats are now laid 
with gravel for walks, and seats are placed on the 
summits of the towers; while trees and shrubs have ! 
usurped undisputed dominion. Most fantastic are the | 
modes, yet perceptible, by which vegetable expansion has I 
penetrated and overthrown the granite-like concrete 
walls of the builders. I have heard of sighs and desires j 
to behold the vegetation-ruled cities of Central America, 
