• ; f
[i: ' i i
S e c t . V . Operations for retarding or accelerating Vegetation.
2614. To overcmie difficulties is the last stage in the progi-css of art. After civilised
man lias had every thing which he can desire in season, his next wish is to heighten the
enjoyment by consummation at extraordinai-y seasons. Tlie merit here consists in con-
quenng nature ; and in gardening this is done by cold-houses and hot-houses, and bv
excluding or increasing the effects of the sun in the open air. Tho origin of these
practices is obmously derived from tlic fact, that heat is the grand stimulus to vegetation r
and Its comparative absence, the occasion of toi-por and inactivity.
S ttbsect. 1. Opei'ations for retarding Vegetation.
2615. Retarding by the form o f surface is effected by forming beds of earth in an cast
and west direction, sloping to the north at any angle at wliich tlic em-th will stand ; here
salading may be sown in summer, and spinach, tiurnps, and such crops as shoot rapidlv
into ilowcr-stcms during hot wcatlicr.
2616. Retarding hy shade. The simplest mode of retai-ding vegetation is, by keeping
plants constantly iii comparative shade in the spring season. This is either to be done bv
liaving them planted on the north side of a wall or house, or sloping bank, hill, or other
elevation ; or by moving them there in pots ; or by placing a shade or shed over or on
tlie south side of tlic vegetables to be retarded. Where the object of retarding vegetation
IS to liai e tlie productions in perfection later in the season, the first method is generally
resorted to ; but where vegetation is only retarded in order that it may burst forth with
greater vigour when the shades arc removed, then cither of the others is preferable.
e S cspalicr-rail, shaded from the sun from Fcbruai-y to the middle
ot May, will be later in coming into blossom, and therefore less likely to have thcir
blossoms injured hy ft-ost.
2617. Retarding by the cOld-house, or ice-cold chamber adjoming ice-houses, is more
particularly applicable to plants in pots, especially fniit-trccs, and might be made a
practice of importance. Vegetation may in this way be retarded from March to
feeptcnibcr ; anil the plant removed at that season, by proper gradations, to a hothouse,
inid-wintcr. It is even alleged by some gardeners, who have liad
pcncnce m Russia, that the vegetation of peach trees may be so retarded an entire
Jjcar ; and that aftenvards, when the plant is removed into spring or summer heat, in
the January of the second year, its vegetation is most rapid, and a crop of fruit may be
ripened in March or April, with very little exertion on the pai-t of the gardener. The
cm-hest potatoes y c obtained from tubers which have been kept two seasons ; that is
those ai-e to be planted which have been produced the season before the last : or the
produce ot the summer of 1848, in December 1849.
^ 2618. Retarding the ripening o f fruits by excluding oxygen. M. Berard, of Montpelier,
in an essay on the miemng of fniits, which gained tho prize of the Fi'cnch Academy of
Sciences in 1821 found that the loss of carbon is essential to the ripening of fruits ; that
this carton combines with tho oxygen of the air, and forms cai-bonic acid ; and that,
■when the fruit is placed m an atmosphere deprived of oxygon, tliis ftmction becomes
suspended, and tho npenmg is stopped. Hence it results, tliat most fraits may be preserved
during a certain period, by gathering them a few days before they arc ripe, «nd
placing them in an atmosphere free from oxygen. The most simple process for effectino-
this consists in placing at the bottom of a bottle a paste foi-med of lime, sulphate of iron
and water ; then introduce the fruit so that they may rest detached from the bottom of thè
bottle and irom each other, and cork the bottle and cover it with cement. Peaches
plumj and apncots have been kept in this way for a month ; peai-s and apples for threo
months. Aftenvards they will i-ipen perfectly by exposure to the air. (Journal R. Inst, vol. X I. p. 396.)
S u b s e c t . 2 . Operations for accelerating Vegetation.
° / surface consists in fonning beds or banks in an east
and west direction, and sloping to the south, forming an angle with the horizon the
maximum of which, m garden-soils, cannot exceed 45°. On such beds eai-lv-
sown crops, as radishes, peas, turnips, &c., will come much earlier, and winter-standing
crops, ^ lettuce, broccoli, &c., suffer less from severe weather, tlian those on a level siirleSs,
bweco^S^&c. (26?5.>''*' vegetation, as
2620. Acceleratwn by shelter, and exposure to the sun, is the simplest, and probably the
only pnimtive mode of accelerating the vegetation of plants ; and hence one of the obiects
tor which walls and hedges are introduced in gai-dens. A May-duke cherry, trained
against a south wall, and another tree, of the same species, in the open compartment of
a sheltered garden, were found, by the late J. Kyle, of Moredun, near Edinbuj-gh on
an average of years, to differ a fortnight in the ripening of their fruit. In cold, damp.
cloudy seasons, tlicy were nearly on a par; but in dry, wann seasons, those on the wall
were sometimes fit to be gathered three weeks before the others. It^ may be here
remarked, that though, iu cloudy seasons, those on the wall did not ripen before the
others; yet their fiavour was, in such seasons, better than that of the others, probably
from the comparative dryness of their situation. Corn and potatoes on the south and
north sides of a hill, all other cii-cumstanccs being equal, ripen at about the same relative
distances of time. • n t. -u
2621. Accelerating hy soils is effected by manures of all sorts, but especially by what
arc called hot and stimulating manures and composts, as pigeons’ dung for cucumbers,
blood for vines ; and, in general, as to soils, lime-rubbish, sand, and gravel seem to have
the power of accelerating vegetation to a much gi-eater degree than rich clayey or loamy
soils, or bog or peat earth. ^ •, yi •
2622. Accelerating hy p revious p rep ara tio n o f the p la n t is a method of considerable importance,
whether taken alone, or in connection with other modes of acceleration. It has
long been obscn-ed by cultivators, that early ripened crops of onions and potatoes sprout,
or give signs of vegetation, more eai-ly the next season than late-ripened crops. The
same of bulbs of flowers which liave been forced, which _re-grow much earlier next
season than those which have been grown in the open air. it was reserved for Kmght,
however, to tuni this to account in the forcing of fruit-trees, as related in a paper, accompanied,
as usual, by what rciidors all the papers of that eminent horticulturist so truly
valuable, — a rationale of the practice. _ _ • _
2623. T h e period w hich any species o r v a rie ty o f f r u it w ill require to a tta in m a ffin ty ,
nnder any given degrees of temperature, and exposure to the influence of light in the
forcing-house, will be regulated, to a much greater extent than is gcneraliy imagined by
the previous management and consequent state of the tree, when that is first subjected to
the operation of artificial heat. Every gardener knows that, wlien the previous season
has been cold, and cloudy, and wet, the wood of his frnit-trecs remains immature, and
weak abortive blossoms only arc produced. The advantages of having the wood well
ripened arc perfectly well understood ; bnt tliose which may be obtained, whenever a
very early crop of fruit is required, by ripening the wood very early in the preceding
summer, and putting the tree into a state of repose, as soon as possible after its wood has
become perfectly mature, 'do not, as far as my observation has extended, appear to be at
all known to gardeners ; tliough every one who has had in any degree the management
of vines in a hothouse must have observed the different effects of the same degrees of
temperature upon the same plant, in October ancl February. In the autumn, the plants
have iust sunk into tlieir winter sleep; in February, they are refreshed, and r c a c l y to
awake again; and wlicnever it is intended prematurely to excite then- powers of hie
into action, the expediency of putting those powers into a state of rest e^ly in the
preceding autumn appears obvious. (^ H ort T ra n s ., vol. ii. p. 368.) Kniglit placed some
vines in pots, in a forcing-liouse, in tho end of Januai-j', which ripened tlicir fruit m the
middle of July; soon after which, the pots were put under the shade of a nortli wall in
the open air. Being pruned and removed in September to a south wall, they soon
vegetated with much vigour, till the frost destroyed thcir shoots. Others, which were
not removed fi-om the north wall till the following spring, when they were pruned and
placed against a south wall, “ripened their fruit well in the following season in a
climate not nearly wann enough to have ripened it at all, if the plants had previously
grown in tlie open air.” Peach trees, somewhat similarly treated, unfolded then- blos,-
soms nine days earlier, “ and their fruit ripened three weeks earlier ” than in other trees
of the same varieties. ( H o r t Tmzi«., vol. ii. p. 372.) Pots of grapes which had produced
a crop prcvionsly to midsummer, were placed under a north wall till autumn ; on the 12th
of January, they were put into a stove, and ripened their fmit by the middle of April,
(//ori. T ra n s ., vol. iv. p. 440.)
2G24. B v thus ind u c in g a stale n f re s t in in pots, say vines or peaches, in August, and placing
them immediately in tho ice-cold room till the beginning of January, which is allowing four months of a
winter to them, they would, in all probability, produce very early crops of grapes with less forcing than
would be required for such as ripen their wood in October. Such pots might be placed in pine and other
stoves where a certain degree of heat is kept up a t any rate, and might be contrived to produce a succession
of fruit, in the manner practised by W. Marsland pf Stockport, by a vineyard
in regular succession through his pine-stoves, and turnish ripe grapes tbe whole year. A state ol rest
is readily induced by withholding water from plants under cover; and in the open a u hy covenng ^ee s,
and a portion of the surface or border around or before them, with canvas or oilcloth, to throw off the
autumnal and p a rt of the winter rains.
2625. Accelerating by housing, such as removing plants in pots and boxes to sheds or
rooms in the night, and exposing them in fine weather to the sun, was practised by the
gardener of Tiberius, to procure early cucumbers; and by those of Louis XIV. to force
peas.(/?erarJ.) Gerard, who wrote in 1597, and Parkinson, who wrote hi 1620, describe
the practice as applied to raising cucumbers and melons in this country.
2626. A ccelerating hy a rtific ia l h e a tin w alls is a very frequent and useful practice. In
general it is accompanied by protccting-covcrs of canvas or netting (1944.) ; but some