1880. ] 
PEACHES ON OPEN WALLS. 
G9 
small garden establishments, both an early and a 
succession peach-house are now usually looked 
upon as indispensable as are the grape-houses. 
The cause for this is not far to seek. Many 
people prefer a well-grown fully-ripened Peach 
or Nectarine fresh from the tree, to any other 
fruit, grapes included ; and there is no question 
that to have these fruits up to the highest 
point of flavour of which they are capable, the 
ripening process must be completed on the 
tree. Peaches or Nectarines gathered several 
days before being perfectly ripe, as they require to 
be when they have to pass through the fruiterer’s 
hands, ultimately arrive at a mellow eatable 
condition ; but when this is brought about 
after they are removed from the tree, they are 
far from being equal to such as are allowed to 
hang their wonted time. 
In fact, it may with truth be said that those 
who do not have these and other stone fruits 
fully matured on the tree, never know what it 
is to eat them as they should be eaten. Neither 
is there any doubt that under glass the trees 
escape many of the maladies and mishaps to 
which they are liable when on open walls, 
especially in their being protected from the 
vicissitudes of weather. That the Peach is 
particularly adapted for cultivation under glass 
is evident, from the fact that we so often see 
trees on open walls not in good condition, but 
which, when a house is built over them, quickly 
assume a vigorous healthy state. The length 
of time the trees last and continue fruitful, 
where well managed, even when forced for a 
long succession of years, is further proof of the 
adaptability of the Peach for in-door cultivation. 
Yet, granting all this, I cannot subscribe 
to the verdict that some who treat on this sub¬ 
ject appear to have come to, as evidenced by the 
despairing tone in which they write regarding the 
cultivation of these fruits on open walls. There 
is doubtless a considerable portion of England 
climatically unsuited to the growth of peaches, 
in which their cultivation in the open air is 
so precarious, or impossible, that it is no use 
planting them. Where this is proved to be 
the case, it is simply folly to fight against 
natural difficulties that we cannot cope with, 
and it is much better to occupy the walls with 
other fruits that are found to succeed; but 
even where climate and other conditions requi¬ 
site for the well-being of Peaches and Nectarines 
on open walls exist, it is no uncommon occur¬ 
rence to meet with them in anything but a 
satisfactory state, simply through want of 
attention. Where the expense of a glass 
house is incurred, with the additional cost of 
heating it, there the trees almost invariably have 
the attention bestowed upon them that would 
be given to any other description of fruit grown 
under like conditions—an unstinted supply of 
water to the roots, with such solid and liquid 
stimulants as are deemed necessary. Care is 
taken that nothing is planted on the borders 
that can in any way impoverish the soil; the 
leaves from their first opening are kept free 
from insects by a daily use of the syringe or 
garden engine, and if a few curled leaves mark 
the presence of aphides, means are at once 
taken to get rid of them. Strict attention is paid 
to air-giving in the mornings, and closing the 
house in the afternoons, a very different 
course to that frequently pursued with the 
same fruits on open walls, where too often it 
appears as if they were left very much to chance : 
aphides being allowed to cripple or destroy 
much of the first foliage, followed by red- 
spider and thrips later on ; the trees being per¬ 
mitted to carry a far heavier crop than they are 
able to mature; or the thinning not beingattended 
to until the fruit has grown to a considerable 
size, and has thus so far taxed the trees to no 
purpose. In addition to all this, the young 
shoots are frequently not sufficiently thinned, 
or not removed till they also have drawn 
severely and uselessly upon the strength of the 
roots, besides injuring the current crop of fruit, 
if there happens to be any. 
I do not mean to say that this is a picture 
of Peach cultivation as it exists in the many 
gardens throughout the country where these, 
and other out-door fruits, meet with their due 
share of attention, equal to those that are grown 
under glass ; but it is no exaggeration of what 
is to be seen in very many places, where the fruits 
that have more or less expensive glass erections 
to shelter them are fairly treated. When 
Peach-trees on open walls receive generally the 
attention they both require and deserve, there 
will be less said about the precarious nature of 
the crop, which oftener fails through the in¬ 
different treatment they have been sub¬ 
jected to, than through spring frosts, or badly- 
matured wood.—T, Baines, Southgate. 
