196 THE. FLORIST. 
advise beginners. to procure all their plants grafted upon pheenicea, for 
although some varieties do very well for a number of years upon their 
dwn roots; most of them are liable to die at the collar 5 they BLN, equally 
well, and are safer grafted upon pheenicea. 
THE PEACH IN 1860. 
Ww have frequently noticed in our pages the difficulty which of late 
years had attended the growth of the Peach on. open walls in our 
climate, and at the same time have recommended glass as the most 
certain, and in the end the cheapest mode of protecting the Peach and 
Nectarine, ‘with the view of securing a crop of fruit. The state of 
Peach trees in the open ‘air was bad enough when we penned. our 
former remarks, by way of enquiry, as to the best means of protecting 
them front the inclement nature’of our seasons ; but judging from the 
appearance of our own trees, and from all we can ‘learn besides, there 
is now but little hope for the successful culture of thé Peach on the open 
wall. Hundreds of trees from two to twenty years old and upwards are 
already dead, and the labour and expense of years have been destroyed 
by the past winter and spring. With this evidence before us, it would 
be, in our opinion, a waste of time and money to attempt open-air 
culture of the Peach again, unless in very favoured spots. It therefore 
remains for us to consider the most certain means of obtaining annual 
crops of this delicious fruit at an expense which will bring it within. the 
limits of ordinary garden appliances; for unless we can prove ‘that glass 
will grow the Peach profitably—taking the average of a certain number 
of years, say seven—we had better give up the experiment, and Plant 
those kinds of trees which are found to succeed. 
From long continued observation and enquiry, we consider that the 
average duration of the Peach, on the open wall in Britain, barely reaches 
15 years, and in many’ situations itis much lower than this. If we 
take three years as the time for the trees to become fruitful after planting, 
and allow two for the diminished supply before decay and disease render 
them profitless, we have only 10 years out of the 15, when the tree, 
under favourable seasons, produces a crop; and when we come to deduct. 
from this the failures which arise from unfayourable seasons, we can 
only calculate on seven or eight years out of the 15 in which the Peach 
furnishes a profitable return. This may be exceeded in some situations, 
but certainly it is not attained in others ; and we are inclined to take 
it as a fair average result of the country. This will show us how 
expensive Peach culture on open walls is—nor is this all. The details of 
cultivation are much increased in unfavourable seasons, and the cost of 
keeping down red spider, greenfly, &c., amounts to a considerable sum } 
and we must also take into calculation the expense of canvas, bunting, 
netting, &c., the materials usually employed for spring Pio BOW with 
only partial results, ae 
We think we are within the mark when we state that ‘a "glass 
cover for a Peach wall’ can be constructed for 6d, per foot super- 
ficial; to this will have to ig added ventilators, doors, ends, and, 
