194 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, July 5, 1859. 
pensate for neglecting minute practical details. With 
the latter alone you will often be successful; with the 
former alone you will rarely be so; combine both and 
there will not only be success, but an additional pleasure 
in your work. Finally, to those who like comfort, enjoy¬ 
ment and ease, bodily and mental, I would say, com* 
mence not gardening, or leave it as soon as you can. To 
the energetic and resolved, to whom obstruction and diffi¬ 
culty whet the appetite and give a relishing zest for fresh 
conquest, I would say, persevere, and comprehend every¬ 
thing clearly as you go on, and, even under present cir¬ 
cumstances, success will ultimately be certain. 
Were such hindrances as thoso referred to lessened or 
removed, the way of success would not be shorter, but it 
would be surer; and, instead of being so much blocked 
and encumbered with entangling thorns and nettles that 
prick and sting, it would often be cheered and lighted up 
with rose-buds and flowers, the types of physical and 
mental comfort. it. Fish. 
PEACHES AND NECTARINES. 
I cannot imagine how it is that more people produce 
good Grapes than good Peaches. It certainly is not 
because the latter are more difficult of culture : I consider 
the Vine quite as delicate a subject to handle as the 
Peach. I was at a noted horticultural exhibition a few 
days since, and where very excellent Grapes were shown: 
but the Peaches, taken in the lump, were contemptible. 
To be sure one dish was up to mediocrity, but these 
would not weigh above five or six ounces each ; and Royal 
Georges, forsooth, which kind I had exhibited a score years 
since, as much as twelve ounces and a half. In good 
truth, a Royal George or a Galande of less than eight 
ounces should not show its face at respectable exhibitions. 
Since matters stand thus, let us inquire into the sub¬ 
ject, and endeavour to ascertain the reasons for this 
partial failure, for so I must persist in terming it. And 
here as a preliminary let me remark, that, although 
cautious and experienced practitioners recommend the 
use of turfy or fibrous loams in preference to a prepon¬ 
derance of manurial matters, yet (and it may surprise the 
inexperienced to learn that), the very same persons may 
be found using a very considerable amount of stimulus at 
given periods in the history of their annual fructification. 
I will here take the liberty of stating my practice this 
spring with a Peach-house, which, at this moment, I 
would venture to show against any house in Dritain. 
The trees have been planted three years, and they fill the 
trellis from the ground to the ridge-plate. The trellis 
being parallel with the roof at fifteen inches’ distance all 
through, presents, of course, a considerable surface. The 
border, on arches communicating with the outside, was 
composed of fresh loam from an old headland in a pasture; 
but with the addition of some old hotbed lining of leaves, 
&c., and a good deal of charred rubbish. The trees have 
thriven to admiration, and last year carried an enormous 
crop of superior fruits : this year promises to completely 
excel the last. 
Now as to treatment. The pinching system has been 
followed up for a couple of years ; and, in consequence, 
the chief of the fruit are on spurs—that is to say, the 
bases of the pinched shoots of last summer’s growth. 
This practice I have before urged in The Cottage 
Gakdenee ; and at the end of this season I hope to be in 
a position to thoroughly prove it. The treatment has 
been the same this summer. They were pinched on 
May the 30th for the fourth time: but some of the lower 
and inferior branches, being a wee bit below the strength 
of their compeers, are to this moment unpinched and 
ramble wildly. By the end of summer I shall have 
placed those branches on the most perfect equality. The 
compost of these trees being very porous through a liberal 
introduction of charred rubbish and a turfy loam, the 
trees require water most liberally : this they have had at 
least once a-week. I have constantly applied guano 
water of the strength of about one ounce to the gallon, 
and with very great benefit. What with the frequent 
pinching of the stronger portions of the trees and the 
manure water, the foliage is of a peculiarly heavy green 
colour, and the fruits are swelled to the very utmost, as 
far as the first swelling can possibly carry them. They 
are now just beginning to take their final swelling, the 
stoning process being complete ; and they shall have 
manure water about twice more, when I shall desist 
watering in order to obtain high flavour. In due time I 
will report in these pages the final result of these pro- 
motings, giving weight, quantity, and quality. I have 
thus detailed my practice to show that, although I have 
been a strenuous advocate for simple loamy soils, yet 
that I am as strenuous an adviser of the use of manure 
waters when a real occasion exists for their application. 
Whilst I am speaking of Peaches, let me advert to a 
few salient points in the matter of protection, Ac. It 
seems to be a very generally recognised practice at last; 
and no wonder. Some persons are in the habit of drawing 
too hasty inferences from slender arguments : and such 
has been, in part, the case with the protection question 
in fruits. I have known gardeners years since, who 
dreaded innovations, point in an exulting mood to trees 
well set with fruit, and boldly ask, What is the use of pro¬ 
tection? Such has occurred in genial springs, when, in 
truth, protection possibly need not have been cared for. 
But by the old saying, “ One swallow does not make a 
summer,” and one runaway conclusion may not settle 
matters which require some breadth of consideration 
and well-digested evidence to settle. And without any 
desire to trespass on the regions of politics, I must 
borrow one of their favourite modern maxims, “ The 
best way to maintain peace is to be prepared for war.” 
There are so many contingencies in gardening, that gar¬ 
deners should really sleep with their armour on. The 
use of net is recommended. No nets for me. Why stop 
half way in this affair, if the principle is thoroughly re¬ 
cognised P And how strange it does appear to observe 
one person strenuous above measure as to the newer pet— 
the orchard-house, and the same quarrelling with his gar¬ 
dener about the expense of canvass. He has known, he 
will tell you, crops fail after all the fuss about protection ; 
but let us have, as Mr. Mechi said, a balance-sheet. Has 
there, I wonder, been any failure in orchard-houses ? 
The orchard-house is, doubtless, a useful adjunct when 
carried out on right principles ; and it is more—it is a 
fashionable pet. Had, however, any good practical gar¬ 
dener thirty years since proposed to his einployer to 
build a bouncing house to the tune of something like a 
hundred pounds, in order to grow Plums, Pears, &c., 
how he would have been stared at. “ Like quills upon 
the fretful porcupine ” would his worthy employer’s hair 
have stood erect. 
With much deference, indeed, to those who go a-head 
in this orchard-house matter. I would invite them, one 
and all, to consider what an English fruit garden is by 
universal acceptation. There must be walls, expensive 
walls, otherwise it will be only a Scotch Kail yard. 
These are costly matters; and- they are not only a 
boundary necessitated, but were there no boundary ne¬ 
cessary, persons living at their case would be found to 
build walls specially for the cidture of the better fruits: 
so truly attached is the Englishman to a good garden. 
Why, then, not do all that science and labour con¬ 
joined can carry out? Surely it is high time that most 
thinking men in Britain—albeit, the thinking may be a 
little wide of their own profession—were in a position to 
weigh the respective merits of a few antagonistic practices 
in gardening. 
Let me now observe as to the Peach, that there is still 
some little misconception as to the use of the engine, or 
its little representative, the syringe. The real fact would 
appear to be, that the Peach docs not require such fre- 
