wall may be of great service. Cordons can be
grown on the wall, or planted outside and trained indoors, like vines,
near the glass. Trees in pots can also be placed there. With either
house, some ground to which the trees in pots can be removed when all
danger from frost is over is required. It should be warm and well
sheltered. Maiden plants may be put into 8 or 10-inch pots in September,
and cut back later on, but time is saved by purchasing older trees of
nurserymen; 15 to 18-inch pots will be needed in a few years. If there
is a concrete floor, the pots must be raised on bricks, that surplus
water may pass off. If the pots are plunged, care must be taken that the
water can run away. In June take them into the open air, plunge them in
the ground within three inches of the rim, to keep them warm and moist,
and to protect the trees from the wind. After the fruit is gathered,
the trees should as a rule be repotted. Prepare a fresh pot with broken
flints, etc., at the bottom, place a piece of turf on them, next a
handful of soot, and some fine soil on that. Have ready some new soil
made chiefly of good turfy loam, to which old mortar rubbish or road
scrapings, wood ashes, guano, and bone-dust have previously been added.
The whole should be well mixed. Then take the tree out with a ball of
earth, remove the soil all round the ball with a pointed stick, shorten
the rootlets around, and cut any coarse roots away with sharp pruning
scissors. Place the topmost roots an inch and a half below the rim, then
shake this compost among the roots, finally ramming the soil hard down
into the pot. In two or three days soak the ball with rain or warm
water. The trees are better in the house until re-established. Sprinkle
the leaves daily with soft water. Close and keep the house moist. The
pots can then be taken out and plunged once more. The house will
probably be wanted. They must be carefully protected in severe weather;
place ashes, earth, or manure around them. Another plan is to lay the
pots on the ground and cover them with mats. Take them back to the house
before the buds begin to move. Shape the trees in winter, and summer
prune as may be necessary. They require syringing as well as rich
feeding when carrying a crop. A mixture of poultry droppings or night
soil (half a barrowful) added to the same amount of sifted soil and of
wood ashes, with a peck of soot and a peck of bone dust, all made into a
compost a few days before use,