and height: the length of an Orchard House
may depend on the owner's means and space.

The fruit-trees in Orchard Houses are grown
in pots, with a slight exception to be mentioned.
A fondness for figs first induced Mr. Rivers to
attempt the pot-culture of fruit. It proved
successful; and he further reasoned, if figs in pots
can be made to bear a crop of fruit by giving
them extra nourishment during the summer,
why should not peaches, nectarines, apricots,
vines, plums, cherries, and pears, be managed
in the same way?

Suppose your Small Span-roofed house put
together by the village carpenter—or by yourself
and your gardening-man, if you are handy with
your tools—how to stock it with fruit-trees, or
“subjects,” as the French say? For long-pursed
people, the task is easy; their spring-cart will
go and fetch as many as they please. The nurseries
offer apricots, nectarines, and peaches in
pots, at from five shillings to seven-and-sixpence
each; extra-large specimens, one guinea; pears,
apples, plums, and cherries, at prices ranging
from half-a-crown to five shillings each. See the
advertisements in the Gardeners' Chronicle. But
the short-pursed amateur need not despair. He
will have to wait a twelvemonth without tasting
fruit of his own growing; but, meanwhile, he
will enjoy, with Mr. Rivers's instructions, the
delightful amusement of training his own trees.

Maiden trees may be bought at the nurseries
at from eighteenpence to half-a-crown each.
Peach-trees, with patience, may be obtained yet
more economically—from the kernel. A seedling
peach-tree, raised from the stone of a good
sort, such as the Red Magdalen or the Grosse
Mignonne, will generally produce an excellent
fruit without being budded. Therefore, instead
of throwing away the stones of peaches that
have been eaten at dessert, you will do well to
plant them in the ground, to make trees for
future Orchard Houses, whether you intend to
bud them or not. If more than you want, they
can be given away; and a trained pyramidal
peach-tree is a present that is likely to become
more and more acceptable. For peach-trees,
the budding process is performed, first to insure
a particular variety of peach; and secondly, to
bring the tree sooner into a bearing state. But
the pot-culture and the pinching, greatly tend
to effect the latter object. If, perchance, the
seedling fruit turn out of indifferent quality,
the tree may still be budded, or “worked,” as
it is called, with an approved sort. But seedling
peaches should not be condemned too
hastily; the quality, even from old-established
trees, varies from year to year, according to the
season and the culture. Fruit not properly
thinned out, is almost sure to be inferior; and
very few amateur gardeners have sufficient self-
denial to thin their peaches with due severity.

Fruit-trees in pots are grown either as round-
headed bushes or as upright pyramids. You will
select the pyramidal or cylindrical shape, as more
symmetrical, and allowing you to have more trees
in a given space. Mr. Rivers gives a woodcut of
a maiden peach-tree in a pot, pruned to form a
close pyramid. You must be a very clumsy
pupil it you cannot do this potting and
preliminary pruning yourself. Your tree will be
from four to five feet high; if more, you will
cut off its top to that height. Each lateral
shoot should be cut into two buds; these, and
the buds in the stem, will, in May, give numerous
shoots. As soon as they have made three leaves,
pinch off the third leaf with the end of the
shoot, leaving two leaves. The pinched shoots
will soon put forth a fresh crop: every shoot of
this, and of all succeeding crops, must be
pinched off to one leaf, as soon as two or three
leaves are formed. Sometimes there is a small
leaf at the base of the shoot, which is blind,
that is, it has no bud in its axil: this must not
count for one. If it be desirable to increase the
height of the tree, the leading shoot at each
pinching may be left with five or six leaves.

This incessant summer pinching of the shoots
of a potted tree, in the climate of the Orchard
House, and even in a warm situation out of doors,
will in one season form a compact, cypress-like
tree, crowded with short fruit-spurs, In spring,
these, if too crowded, may be thinned out (not
shortened) with a sharp penknife, so as to leave
them as nearly as possible at regular distances.
In summer, the fruit should be thinned, and the
shoots pinched in, as directed above, every
season. A close fruitful pyramid will thus be
formed, on which the fruit will be fully exposed
to the sun and air. Pyramidal peach and
nectarine trees may be planted in the borders of
Orchard Houses with excellent results. They will
require the same incessant pinching as potted
trees, and must be lifted and replanted annually in
October. There can be no escape from this;
for if pyramidal peach or nectarine trees are
suffered to grow two years in the borders of the
Orchard House without being lifted, no pinching
or pruning will restrain their excessive vigour.

Although, at the date of this publication, it is
too late to plant trees in pots, it is not too
late to commence the training of trees now
growing in the open ground. These may be
potted in October, with a prospect of fruit
from them the following season. Little anxiety
need be felt by the beginner; for, when a peach-
tree has been in a pot in an Orchard House for
two years it will bear, prune it how you will.
Nothing is required but to make the tree
symmetrical, well furnished with shoots from the
base upward, and to prevent its bearing too
bountifully.

If Mr. Rivers have one special pet more than
another, it is the apricot-tree as a pyramid,
which most charming mode of growing apricots
in pots will in a short time, he says, be the only
method followed. The tree must be formed
into a cylinder by pinching; and it is needless
to say how beautiful such trees are when studded
with their golden fruit. Market-gardeners,
wedded to their wall-culture, will do well to
cover a few acres of ground with cheap Orchard
Houses, and to plant in them pyramidal apricot-
trees. These may be suffered to grow from seven
or eight to nine feet high. If pinched in