THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Septembee 4, 1SG0. 
planted on the natural plan of the district, as it were. 
The whole face is massed with double Gorse, among 
which bunches of Ribes sanguinea rise here and there, 
and masses of white Broom in other parts—that is to 
say, a wild-like upper moorland covered with scrubby 
brushwood, as by chance, and looking as the outer edges 
of a wilderness, yet contrived and planted on purpose so 
as as to give the right idea of the boundary-line of the 
Crystal Palace grounds in that direction, and a suitable 
foreground to the views from the terrace of Sir Joseph 
Paxton, with the actual boundary concealed between the 
two. 
In the kitchen garden the great feature is the Portable 
Houses for the Million. Several new ones have been 
erected since I was there last year, and some of the 
details of construction have been since simplified. The 
whole is in glass, and no boarding, same as lean-tos 
against walls, and others span-roofed, with ample walks 
down the centre, and borders on each side raised eighteen 
inches above the level of the walks, having stout boards 
on edge to the sides of the walks to keep up the soil. The 
hot-water pipes, four-inch ones, are in some up and down 
each side of the walk, and in others along the centre of 
the borders, in single runs. They are worked by portable 
small boilers, and the crops are splendid, without a single 
failure that I could see. In some of them pot plants are 
sunk a little in the borders, as with Mr. Eivers ; but in 
the greater number the trees are planted out in the 
borders, and they say the latter give most fruit with less 
trouble and expense; and I should say, from my own 
view of orchard-houses, that where Strawberries and 
Kidney Beans are to be forced from Christmas to June, 
and where bedding plants are a great object, as they are 
here, the two systems should go hand-in-glove, if only 
with two such houses; the one to be with planted-out 
trees, the other with the trees in pots. 
Taking a comprehensive view of these cheap structures, 
we must allow there are two classes of people to manage 
them. The one class consists of amateurs who must and 
will have their own fingers in the pie, morning, noon, and 
night, when they are at home, or night and morning when 
they must be away for the rest of the day. Pot culture 
of fruit trees gives the greatest zest to most of that class, 
and Mr. Eivers is their prophet, priest, and king. He can 
fortell events in that way. He will rule by the long or 
short-rod system, by the coil or spur, or spur them on 
without the rod in pickle, and he can bless them with no 
ends of sorts, and kinds, and sizes of plants, to carry on 
the good work, and the self-imposed labour. 
But there is another class—a widely different class, and 
very differently situated—a class of gardeners who have 
a great deal to do and very little to do it with. They 
must foresee events for themselves, and rule for them or 
against them as Britannia rules the waves—now up on 
the crest of one, and then down in the hollow of another, 
and risk their fame and their characters in the next 
plunge, and there is no one to bless them or do a single 
turn for them out of season. An orchard-house full of 
all kinds of pot plants is a heavy burden and a sad task 
to this class ; and any movement to lessen the strain on 
them deserves our best attention. Then here it is, as I 
suspected from the first start. The two ways are in 
perfect working order in Sir Joseph Paxton’s garden at 
Sydenham; and I made diligent inquiries as to the actual 
expenses of each, and how the one rated with the other. 
It would be no criterion to give the actual cost; but I 
was told, without a moment’s hesitation, that one house 
in which the trees were planted out cost only one-eighth 
of the expense in time and management of that of a similar¬ 
sized house in which all the trees were in pots; and, 
moreover, the crop in the first would fetch, in Covent 
Garden Market, just twice as much money as that from 
the pots. This statement was made to me by a good 
practical gardener, who had seen the work done from first 
to last, but had nothing to do with it himself. I pur¬ 
posely took that precaution, and all the parties concerned 
were aware of the end and aim of my notes. 
But there is yet one more system in full play in one of 
these portable houses, an intermediate mode between the 
other two—between pots and all pots, and planting out 
and no pots. In this house, a span one, Vines are planted 
out all round the sides at the bottom of the glass. The 
glass in these houses comes down to the very surface of 
the earth on both sides and at each end. These Vines 
are not far apart—perhaps four feet or less. The rods 
run up this year to the ridge ; the next year one-half, or 
rather one-third, of the rods will be fruited on the rafters 
—perhaps on every alternate rafter ; the rest being drawn 
on to the border, and fixed or coiled to stakes, and so 
fruited as if they were in pots—pot-pillars, in fact. That 
gives as much light from the glass as will do for other 
fruit-plants in pots placed along these borders with the 
pillar Vines, and before the new rods from the bottom 
eyes of the bent ones for fruiting next year have time to 
overshadow the crop. Sir Joseph prefers his Grapes all 
from single rods and no spurring; and a young vinery on 
that system, and nineteen yards in length, all of Black 
Hamburghs, is the finest and most regularly-sized bunches 
and berries I have seen anywhere, and I have seen a good 
many in my day. One house that is occupied all the 
winter and spring with bedding plants is full of Melons 
in boxes on one side, and Cucumbers in pots and boxes 
on the other, the pipes going more or less the whole 
summer. 
Another house for forcing Kidney Beans has paid the 
whole cost of erection the first season at the rate the 
crop would fetch in Covent Garden, the quantity gathered 
and the market price being regularly kept through the 
season. The Beans were in boxes ; but the secret is the 
glass coming down to the soil all round, and the power of 
keeping the temperature to any given figure. You could 
hardly believe that one of my stamp could get a sudden 
surprise in one of these houses, but no use would come of 
denying the fact. It was a long vinery, with the border 
made on the top of the garden surface, and, of course, 
had a front wall; then, inside there was a wide shelf all 
along the front, and five or more feet wide to stand pots 
on. The whole of that stage from end to end was covered 
with Strawberry plants in No. 60-pots, perhaps to the 
tune of a thousand or more. What on earth could they 
be doing or thinking of about forcing Strawberries towards 
the end of August P They were not forcing Strawberries, 
but making up for lost time for want of sun and warmth 
outside. Nine-tenths of the Strawberry plants that will 
bloom early next February in England and Wales, and 
some parts in the south of Scotland, and in most parts of 
Ireland, will go blind as moles and bats for want of being 
properly developed this autumn. Mark the prediction, 
and mark also how it is guarded against in this instance 
—the first of the kind, I believe, on record. The runners 
were put in small pots in the usual way; and when the 
pots were full of roots they were removed indoors, placed 
close up to the front glass, liberally supplied with air and 
water in a dry atmosphere. They were up and doing by 
the time I saw them, were to get into the fruiting-pots 
shortly, and, after taking good hold, would be turned out 
of doors in a dry sheltered situation to fill and finish off 
before winter. The whole crop for next forcing has gone 
through that process ; and if any of them gets blind, even 
of one eye, I shall hear of it. But what would you say 
to rearing the most delicate Water Cress in successive 
crops the year round, above the surface of our planet, 
between the earth and the firmament ? Well, that also 
is done there in a comely and economical way in a bed 
12 yards long, 4 yards wide, and 18 inches in depth. It 
is divided into two parts in the centre, so as to have one 
half in bearing, the other to come on in succession—so as 
to have it fresh and fresh, and as pure as plentiful all the 
year round. 
To eat common-got Water Cress, as some do, does not 
