IRfi 
THE COTTAGE GAEOENEll. 
I)KCE:.rRKR 1 1. 
into bloom, and are always Idlled by spring frosts. I’or 
three or four year's lie lias had fine and abundant crops 
from his Orcliard-liouse, Again, how agreeable it is to be 
able to conquer the defects of climate with so mucli faci¬ 
lity. r have heard that the only failures of Orchard-houses 
have, been in such counties as Kent and Surrey, and near 
Tiondon, owing to the self-called gardeners stifling the trees, 
and foi'getting that, in a warm locality, too mucli air cannot 
he given to Teach and Nectarine-trees grown under glass. 
I liave also heard, from a reliable simrce, that more Oi'chard- 
houses are being built this autumn than was ever before 
known. I happen to know of six, each from eighty to 100 
feet long, and twenty feet wide. 
IMr. llobson states that, fruit-growing is not better, or so 
w^ell, understood now’ as it, was trfty years ago. Clranted; for 
as far as my exiierience has gone, the cnltivatioir of fruit- 
trees hji the people, andybr tlie ])eople, has never been un¬ 
derstood; our famed Kentish orchards are masses of en¬ 
tanglement and unwise culture. Instead of irlanting one 
or two thousands of one variety of fruit, well knorvn to 
succeed well in a particular locality, one or two hundred 
are planted of twenty oi’ thirty kinds, all of unequal grow'th, 
requiring to be gatliered at different periods, and tlius 
leading to much irregularity. 1 saw the two thousand trees 
of Louise Jloune Pears, nnmtioned by Mr. Hogg, in page 
lo!). They were pictures of fertility and good culture (I 
happen to know’ that their produce made a large sum in 
Covent Garden ), and I at once felt aware how’ profitable a 
well-managed fruit-orchard must be. 
They manage such things very differently in Kent. They 
plant standarcl trees, in many cases, without any attention as 
to w hat points of the compass the rows abut. The orchards 
are either under grass or planted with Gooseberries and 
Currants, and the ground dug over every season carelessly, 
so that every fibrous surface-root is destroyed. The shoots 
of the trees, after many years growth, are sometimes thinned, 
and sometimes not, and never properly pruned. Verily, I do 
believe that we grew' fruit fifty years ago as well as w’e do 
now'. 
T have a gai’dening friend, who resided a year or two in 
Germany. When he returned to England" he was quite 
distressed to see the neglected state of our garden fruit- 
trees ; unprnned, rude-growing standards, and equally rude 
dw'arfs, growing in the borders of kitchen gardens, which 
ought to have been unshaded and appropriated solely to i 
vegetables ; for in Germany he had seen all the fruit-trees, | 
even in the gardens of the poorest peasants, carefully . 
pruned and kept in a comparatively small compass. Other ; 
orchard trees also pruned w’ith care, so that the branches , 
diverged equally from the stem, and all parts of the tree 1 
felt the influence of the sun and air. i 
I will now, with permission, give my idea of what a j 
Kentish orchard, planted for commercial purposes, ought j 
to be. I 
Site. — A gentle slope to the sonth-w’est. [ 
AoiL —A deep loam, rather tenacious, resting on a dry , 
subsoil; if stony all the better. ' 
J'nrielies .—Eive hundred or a thousand each of good sorts 
w'ell known in the market, and adapted to the climate. 
Trees .—Not standai’ds, but such as have shoots uji the 
stems ; call them pyramids if you will. 
Bispnsitiou. —In row’s abutting north-east and south-w’est, 
or north and south, so that the sun will shine, between the 
rows the warmest portion of the day’. 
Distance. —Ten feet, row’from row, and ten fed apart in 
the rows. 
Fruniiai .—At the time of planting the slioots should be 
thinned out, and a sullicient number left so as to diverge at 
regular distances from the stem, and annually’, in June, 
these should be gone over with the pruning scissors, and all 
the side-shoots and lateral branches shortened to within two 
inches, leaving the leading shoot in each lateral branch un¬ 
touched. At tlie end of August, the leading shoot in each 
lateral branch should be shortened to within ten or tw’elve 
inches, more or less, according to the habit of the variety. 
It a robust grow’er, fourteen inches w’ill be a good length to 
leave tlie shoot of the season ; if a weak grow’er, then eight 
inches will be enough. 
Culture.—i'or two years after planting, five feet of the 
ten feet space between each row niay be ci'opped with 
Potatoes, or dw’arf Peas, or some cro]) that does not root, 
deeply. After that the whole of the ground to be uimropped, 
and to be lightly forked over in spring fin doing this near 
the trees the surface must be merely loosened), and kept 
clear from weeds by tbe boe all summer. A cnpital instrument 
for cleaning an orebard of this description is the “Culti¬ 
vator,” invented by Dr. Newington, of Ticehurst. I'his will 
even do away with the necessity of using the fork in spring, 
for it stirs the soil and cuts u]) the weeds. One man can 
go over a large space of ground in a day. 
'J'hr Future .—After twelve or fifteen years, if the soil be 
rich and good, every alternate row’ of trees should he re¬ 
moved. If their roots are pruned in autumn, they may be 
removed to a fresh oi’cha.rd with safety in the following 
.autumn. At the end, say of twenty years, every alternate 
tree should he removed, leaving the permanent trees twenty 
feet apart; they should by this time be fine, uniform, spread¬ 
ing trees, occupying nearly all the ground. Their fruit will 
be very fine, for the soil being kept clear from weeds, much 
benellt to the fruit and trees will lie derived from the radia¬ 
tion and heat from its surface. The equinoctial gales of 
autumn will do but little injury compared with what they do 
to fruit on standards; and as it can be gathered without 
heavy ladders (often so injurious to standard fruit-trees), a 
great saving of labour is effected. In fine, a Kentish orchard, 
planted on this principle, and these large pyramidal trees 
properly attended to, would be a sight worth seeing, and, 
moreover, would pay well. —Pvr.us Moiiis. 
NEW BOOKS. 
Chemical Field Lecti:ees. By Dr. Julius A. Stockhardl.* 
We have read and have u]>on our shelves the Agricultural- 
Chemical works of Davy, Liebig, Johnston, and of various 
other writers of minor note, all cont.aining valuable informa¬ 
tion, but none of them in a form so readable or so useful 
as this. We shall have occasion to refer frequently to its 
pages, but must at once recommend it to our readers. If 
there are any among them who doulit whether chemistry 
has jiroduced any henelits to the cultivator of the soil, let 
the following brief extract from the chapter entitled 
“ Chemistry, the E'armer’s Home-friend,” help to dispel 
that doubt:— 
“ Chemistry, moreover, may become of especial use to the 
agriculturist when he cairies on, in addition to mere tillage 
and grazing, manufactures connected with ayricnlturnl2troduce, 
such as, distilling, brewing, the preparation of starch or 
starch-sugar, and the manufacture of sugar from heet-root, 
Ac. Here it has not been found so difficult a task to gain 
the confidence of the farmer, because the advantages to 
which it led were so evident, as to admit of direct transla¬ 
tion into hai’d cash. Iteasons of this kind have always 
the greatest power in producing conviction, and they gain 
acceptance at once. Since chemistry here possesses that 
which it also desires to gain on the land and in the stable 
of the farmer, viz. confidence, it would be superfluous to 
add further assurances, proofs, and illustrations. 
“ The reason why chemistry so soon succeeded here in 
producing positive vouchers of its utility, lies simply in the 
fact, that in researches of this kind it has to do, not with 
living bodies in a perpetual state of ebange, like plants and 
animals, but with inanimate substances, tvhich admit of 
chemical examination more readily than the former. As 
long as a plant or an animal lives, the chemical processes 
are under tbe guardianship of & higher, mysterious power, 
called the vital .force, and are compelled by this to furnish 
the materials Ibr the construction of the animal or vegetable 
organism. The vital force is, so to speak, the architect 
which designs the building, whilst the chemical processes 
must see to the provision of the requisite materials, and 
their elaboration in conformity with the design. In lifeless 
bodies, on the contrary, this guardianship no longer exists, 
and the chemical processes have free and unimpeded scope 
for action. The chemist can evoke and imitate the action 
of chemical forces, but by no means that of the vital 
* .1 Familiar Exposition of the Chemistry of Agriculture, addressed 
to Farmers. By Dr. J. A. Stiickhardt, Edited with notes, by Arthur 
Henirey, Esq., E.Il.S., &c. London: H. G. Bohn. 1836. 
