THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Aran, 3, 1860. 
5 
appearance, and all the Guardians present were delighted at the 
sight. Mr. Lett stated he had tried the field in several places 
and found them all equally good, and free from all appearance of 
blight .—(Dublin Agricultural Review, March 23.) 
THE PEACH TREE. 
The surface of garden-walls devoted to the production of the 
Peach in the various gardens of this kingdom, is one of pro¬ 
digious area, and the results obtained from its appropriation to 
this purpose, are, unhappily, “ but few ” good ones, and these 
“ far between.’’ In many cases the trees are planted in deep 
and undrained borders, instead of well-drained and shallow 
ones resting upon impervious bottoms; and in others the 
borders aro made too deep, twenty inches'being, in my opinion, 
a full depth for the roots of this tree. At this depth the roots 
are within the influence of the sun’s power, and are prevented 
from sinking down deeper, and becoming overgorged with crude 
food. 
But, supposing the skill of the gardener to have been most 
fully developed in providing unexceptionable borders, and trees 
worked upon good and proper stocks, we have yet a formidable 
evil to contend with, and that is—climate. However well our 
wood may be ripened, however prominent and plump the buds 
may appeal - , and even when all has gone well to the blossoming 
season, one night of severe frost may blast all our hopes, anni¬ 
hilate our fair prospects. Such fatalities are of yearly occur¬ 
rence, and there are few of our readers who have not in reality 
winced under such visitations. But we have our antidote. 
We have now at our disposal cheap glass, and of all things in 
the way of protection this seems to me to be the best, fully 
realising our anticipations as to fruit. Indeed, I cannot help 
thinking that when one takes into account the labour and skill 
required to prune and train trees, and that the result of all 
this is nil, in fifteen cases out of twenty small, a portion of 
wall enclosed with a glass-case yields a more sure and satis¬ 
factory return than four times the extent of open wall. But to 
make the arrangement complete, a hot-water pipe should be 
added; for Lord Eversley erected a glass-case and lost all his 
Peaches from severe frost by this omission. I have given up 
Peach culture on the open walls, and have about 160 feet of 
these glass-cases, which yield me a certain and ample annual 
supply of fine fruit always of first-rate quality and flavour. 
Out-of-door Peaches are excellent in a fine sunny season, but 
they are poor mawkish things in a dull and wet one. 
There is, I think, a great advantage to be gained as to the 
quality of the fruit from using glass, which is almost an ab¬ 
solute requisite in this country. In its native country of Persia, 
its flavour is fully developed; while in Louisiana, in North 
America, upon the same'parallel of latitude, it is only deemed 
fit for feeding swine, and Phillips says it is not uncommon to 
see orchards there consisting of upwards of one thousand trees. 
I cannot help thinking that great importance attaches to the 
proper formation of the border for Peach trees, and upon this 
subject I would most fully endorse all that my worthy friend, 
Mr. Errington, has written upon the subject of platforms and 
shallow planting. The Dutch gardeners are very good managers 
of these trees, and never fail in obtaining a crop of fine fruit. 
Much is to be done with the Peach in this way, and in root 
pruning; and to know exactly what to do, and when, is only to 
be learned by close attention and experience. 
But we have seen that the greatest stumbling-block in the 
way of the cultivator, is our ungenial and precarious climate. 
The vexed question of protection was so fully discussed in a 
contemporary some years ago, and such a mass of conflicting 
opinions elicited, that it was enough to stagger the most im¬ 
partial and experienced judges. After attentively reading all 
those papers, my own opinion remains unchanged, and it is— 
that protection and retardation are essential. In the modes of 
appliance there are great differences. All permanently fixed 
appliances are bad, and every inch of protecting material should 
be so disposed as to move in any way at the discretion of the 
director. I have seen much harm done by close protections 
weakening the blossoms and making them drop; and if I 
were to choose between having such, and none at all, would 
prefer the latter. 
It has been alleged by some persons, that by having the wood 
and fruit-buds well ripened in the previous summer, they will 
be enabled to bear the trying influences of our wintry winds 
and frosts with more impunity; but although I hold their 
thorough maturation to be a first principle, 1 do not think it 
capable of imparting to the delicate tissues of the flowers a 
greater resistance to cold, and I think that those who entertain 
such opinions rather overshoot their mark. 
I have coupled the principle of retardation with that of pro¬ 
tection, and as a precaution would advise those who may con¬ 
template placing glass against their walls, to make ample pro¬ 
vision for ventilation. This is very important, both for keeping 
back the trees from flowering, and for the setting of the blos¬ 
soms. Peach trees enclosed in a glass-case without air, would 
flower to® early, and do little good in setting. 
It has never fallen to my lot to have seen many Apricot trees 
under glass in this country. But in Holland they are much in 
the fashion of thus forcing Apricots. At naarlem I saw many 
houses of them, and they derived their heat from beds of leaves, 
or dung, along tho front, upon which were invariably planted 
alpine Strawberries. I think that the Apricot acquires on our 
walls a better flavour, comparatively, than the Peach, but glass 
seems very essential for bringing out the piquant aroma of the 
Peach. To glass, therefore, I would consign it, nor leave it 
again, with all its tender attributes, to brave the frosts and 
inclemencies of our English spring. 
Heney Bailey, Nuneham. 
COMPARING NOTES. 
HOTBEDS. 
My friend Mr. Beaton, in alluding recently to a plan 
of hotbed-making, expressed his opinion, that the three- 
feet spaces wider than the bed spoken of, would be the very 
places to sow many tender seeds, giving them some simple pro¬ 
tection from above, such as hand-lights, mats, &c. In this I 
heartily agree, provided the spaces are there, and if the glass of 
| the frames is not removed, means are taken to prevent the water 
in rains from the sashes running on the ground thus occupied 
by seeds. I find I must have expressed myself rather loosely, 
however, in the article on making hotbeds, as when I spoke 
of making the bed three feet wider than the intended frame, 
what I meant was, that the bed should extend eighteen 
inches beyond the frame in front and at back, which, together, 
would make the three feet. The pbjects of this were chiefly 
twofold. To dispense with the necessity of linings to such a 
bed intended for such temporary purposes as seed sowing, 
chiefly because material for lining is often difficult to obtain, 
and when applied in a crude state, carelessly, is apt, by 
the noxious steam passing from it, to neutralise all previously 
well-directed efforts; and secondly,- this eighteen-inch space 
furnishes a platform on which, as soon as it may be required, 
more sweet-fermenting material may be packed round the frame 
to secure the requisite atmospheric temperature. In a bed so 
formed, and tho bottom heat renewed as directed in that article, 
there would seldom be any complaint of a deficiency of bottom 
heat; but the top or atmospheric heat would often vary as much 
according to the changes of the weather, as our correspondent 
“ L. E. C.” stated to be the case with her. This packing round the 
frame, pretty well to the top of the box, gives the means of 
keeping up a genial atmospheric temperature, high enough in 
dull, cold weather, and permitting a more free circulation of 
air when the weather is more mild and sunny. My own firm 
conviction is, that even in the case of hotbeds for such things as 
Cucumbers and Melons, that are commenced with tolerably early 
—say, in Eebruary and March, the forming the bed at once thus 
extra wide, will bo attended alike with economy in labour, 
economy in material, and greater success. By the general mode 
of making tho sides of tho bed only a few inches wider than the 
frame, linings must, ere long, be applied; and these acting chiefly 
on the dung in the bed, the heat that warms the atmosphere 
must first pass through that' dung and its covoring of earth, and 
often by the extreme heat does much injury to the roots, and 
renders the plants unhealthy or covered with insects. By em¬ 
ploying the extra heat to the sides of the frame, instead of to 
the sides of the bed, no such dangers aro encountered. Frequently 
such beds made in March, never have, what is technically called, 
“ a fining ” until the cold nights of autumn, and even -then much 
of the sides of tho old bed is not removed. It is necessary, how¬ 
ever, under such a mode of treatment, that the sides of the bed, 
especially early in the season, should be protected with wattled 
or thatched hurdles, or, at least, a little long litter. Having 
adopted this plan for many years, chiefly on the plea of economy, 
I was much pleased to find, that when I visited Bicton, Mr. 
Barnes managed tho whole of his framing on a similar system. 
