It is but a few years since when one had only to plant a peach, or nectarine, or plum, and be quite certain of obtaining the fairest and finest fruit; and we were accustomed to look with great compassion upon our Anglo-Saxon brethren across the sea, who were compelled to resort to walls and espaliers to raise any fruit at all.

The tables have now turned, and the English find far less difficulty in raising the stone fruit than we do; in fact, throughout the largest portion of the United States nectarines and apricots are hardly known, and peaches and plums are becoming so scarce that presently we shall " see their faces no more".

Of late years the extension of the yellows, borer and curculio has become so great that it is hardly worth the labor to plant the trees, for the most active attention produces the most meagre results. In most country places on the Hudson River no nectarines or apricots have been cultivated for some years, and most of the plums and peaches are cut down and not allowed to cumber the ground any longer. If there are remedies for these afflictions, the doctors at any rate have not found them out, and though we have many theories for the yellows and remedies for the curculio, yet we are satisfied there is nothing yet discovered that for general purposes is at all available. The white-washing process is extremely tiresome, for the labor of several days is most often washed away by a shower of five minutes; and if the shower comes late in the afternoon or at night, a great deal of fruit is stung and much damage done before the white-wash is renewed the next day, and you are always liable to the same difficulties after every rain.

The second method, of picking up the stung fruit morning and evening, after shaking the trees, is not a whit more effectual, unless the whole country should all agree to do the same thing, because when you have destroyed your own curculios, you are not the less free from the visitations of your neighbors'.

Under these circumstances, with an impossibility of growing the stone fruits out of doors, the question is now universally asked, "How can we have peaches, nectarines and apricots again?" and the answer is, by means of what the English call orchard-houses, which are now very generally getting into use in Great Britain, and can be put up there, and we suppose here also, at comparatively little cost. A writer in the English Gardeners' Chronicle, 15th May, 1856, estimates the cost of an orchard-house, 30 feet long, 12 feet wide, 9 feet high at the back, and 3 feet three inches high in front, to be about £13 or $65, in which all the stone fruits are cultivated with the greatest success, in 13-inch pots.

Some orchard-houses have been recently erected on the gardens at White-hill, in England, which are arranged as follows: The 1st house. 3 feet by 16 feet, is planted with plums, cherries and pears (standards), with the same varieties in pots, set upon the ground; 2d house, 40 feet by 10 feet, planted with standard apricots and plums; the 3d, 32 feet by 20 feet, with vines and figs in pots, set upon the ground; the 4th, 36 feet by 22 feet, and 18 feet high, planted with standard peaches; the 5th, 32 feet by 20 feet, planted in vines; 6th, 40 feet by 10 feet, planted in pears, and the same kind of tree in pots set on the surface. All these houses are span-roofed, ventilated at top and bottom, heated by hot water pipes. The range is glass on all sides, to within 2 feet of the ground.

The trees in pots were only planted the previous year, and the number of fruit set on each were as follows:

Pears

Knight's Monarch, 174; Bon Chr6tien Fondate, 84; Louise Bonne, 76; Williams' Bon Chretien, 69; Marie Louise, 95; Duchesse d'Angouleme, 64; Glout Morceaux, 112.

Plums

Green Gage, six trees, averaging 170 each; Angelina Burdett, 300.

Cherries

May Duke, 12 trees, 370 each; Elton 275; Bigarreau, 215.

Peaches

Noblesse, 86; Bellegarde, 80.

Nectarines

Hunts' Tawny, 78; Violette Native, 84.

Apricots

Moor Park, six trees, 90 to 100 each; Peach Apricot, 70; Rreda, 70 to 80.

The peaches and nectarines, as standards, 60 to 70 each.

Apricots, standards, 20 to 30 each. Plums, 70 each.

In the United States, there are not, as yet, to our knowledge, any houses erected distinctly for this purpose, and with the uncertainty of our climate, the tendency of nectarines and peaches to the yellows and borer, and the singular affection so peculiar to apricots, with which a tree, apparently in the fullest health, is suddenly stricken down, we should doubt the advisability of planting standards; but, instead, we would recommend pot culture, which we have tried in a simple green-house for 6ome years back, with the greatest success. Any of the stone-fruits planted in the spring in 3 gallon (11-inch) pots, and transplanted the succeeding autumn into 5-gallon (13-inch) pots, for fruiting, will produce blossoms and fruit the succeeding year, if properly managed; care being taken to admit plenty of air when the fruit is setting, and not to allow the plants to get dry at the root when the fruit would be apt to fall. The trees should be planted in very rich compost, especially when bearing, and well packed in. A system of top dressing is also of the greatest importance, to enable so small a plant to carry such a large quantity of fruit to perfection.

For this purpose, a thick layer of old, well-rotted manure, of the strongest character, should be kept on the surface of the pots as mulching; a few pinches of guano occasionally scattered over this would not be amiss. This top dressing not only prevents evaporation - for it is of the utmost importance to keep the roots moist when the plant is in full vigor - but the products formed from the decay of this dressing, when washed down by the daily watering, conveys to the roots just the character of food most proper for them.

Trees planted and treated in this way, only three or four feet high, last many years, affording the most gratifying returns, and can, in case of accident or death, be very easily replaced: whereas, when a tree, as a standard, trained against a back wall or trellis, is lost, a serious gap is made, and many years are required to replace the damage.

So satisfied have we become that this is the cheapest, in fact, the only way now to grow, or rather fruit, peaches, apricots and nectarines, that we have converted a double curvilinear-house into an orchard-house, 70 feet by 20 feet, and 12 feet high; erecting a platform in the centre, the whole length, which is sufficiently wide to accommodate one row of trees. On either side are two other platforms, each wide enough for two rows of trees, thus enabling us to grow and fruit about 250 trees of the different varieties, which always produce a great quantity. We have introduced hot •water into this house, for the purpose of forcing a little, so as to secure the setting of the fruit and its reaching some size before the appearance of the curculio, which is sometimes found inside of fruit-houses, having passed through the ventilators. By keeping your potted trees in a cellar, or back pit, or, in fact, any place where they are not severely frosted, and by introducing them by tens and twenties once every 7 or 10 days into the house, from the 1st January, or later, the season can be very much prolonged, and there is certainly no cultivation so simple producing greater results, or one, we think, which will be more generally adopted when known, even by those who only can afford the least expensive kind of house.

Wodenethe.