_Cherry trees_ resemble plum trees in their culture, and, when grown against a wall, most of the kinds are trained horizontally, and their branches kept six or eight inches apart. The morello cherry is, however, an exception to this rule, as it requires pruning and training, like the peach.
_Fig trees_ should never be pruned, except to remove shoots that cannot be trained, as the fruit is produced on the young wood at the extremity of the branches. Fig trees should be planted thirty feet apart, and trained horizontally, their long branches being bent backwards and forwards, in order to make them throw out side shoots for bearing fruit, which they will generally do where the bend is made. Fig trees require to be well supplied with water, though they will not grow if any stagnant water be suffered to remain about the roots.
The _pomegranate_ resembles the fig tree in producing its flowers only on the points of its shoots, and on short twigs projecting from its trained branches. Pomegranates require a rich soil; and when it is wished to throw them into fruit, the blossoms should be shaded during the time of expansion, as otherwise the pollen will dry up without fertilising the stigma.
_Grapes_ are frequently grown against a wall in the open air; and in some cases, as, for example, by Mr. Clement Hoare, near Southampton, with very great success. Grapes have been also produced of excellent quality against a flued wall; that is, a hollow wall heated by means of flues in it, as at Erskine, near Greenock; but as, in both cases, extraordinary care is required, I would advise you only to have a common sweet-water vine or two in your garden on the open wall, for the purpose of using its leaves in garnishing, and to grow vines in a vinery to produce the grapes you require for the table.
A vinery is a common hothouse or bark stove, heated with hot-water pipes or flues, and with a pit in the centre, which is generally filled with tan for pines. This appears a very simple and economical arrangement, but it has one great disadvantage; namely, that the pines require heat at a season when the vines should be in perfect repose, unless very early crops of grapes are desired. In other cases the centre of the vinery is planted with peach and nectarine trees for early forcing, the branches of the trees being trained over a curved trellis, and other peach and nectarine trees or vines, planted in the house, being trained against a trellis at the back. The vines for the main crop are, however, planted on the outside of the house, in a border prepared like that for the fruit trees, but richer; and their stems are brought into the vinery, through holes left for that purpose in the front wall. Several compositions have been recommended for making a compost for a vine border; but that most approved is, two parts of turfy loam mixed with one part of very rotten dung or decayed leaves, one part of lime rubbish, and one part of road drift. On the Continent they frequently bury the parts cut off the vine in pruning, in the border, and this is said to make excellent manure.