138 TUE B'LORIST. 



rently ill-cared for and ill-trained trees of the cottagers producing fine 

 crops of fruit, and generally much overcropped ? It is, in my 

 opinion, for the reason I am about to give. There can," continues 

 Mr. Bailey, " be no doubt the more massively a wall is built, or the 

 thicker it is, even if hollow, the longer it will be in radiating at night 

 the heat it has accumulated during the day." This kind of theory looks 

 very well on paper, but practically it amounts to nothing. I wonder 

 how much heat a thick wall would accumulate during a month like 

 March, 1855. "The walls," continues I\Ir. Bailey, "of the cottages 

 about here are generally built of thick stone, and, in addition to the 

 heat absorbed by the sun's rays, they are warmed internally by the 

 fire of the house ; the wall, therefore, of every cottage is, in fact, a hot 

 wall, slowly giving off its heat to the tree trained upon it, and repelling 

 the action of frost, while the projecting thatch or tiles keep all perfectly 

 dry, and arrest the heat radiated from the surface of the wall." 

 Here we have hot walls introduced, of which I have not expressed any 

 opinion, but of which I am as great an advocate as Mr. Bailey. Mr. 

 Bailey makes these hot walls stand in the place of coverings. If I 

 were in search of a fact to support what I have so often advanced, I 

 have it in these hot walls of Mr. Bailey's cottages ; the soil round the 

 foundations of these thick hot walls must, of course, be dry and warm 

 — what a grand place for the roots of Apricot trees to luxuriate in — and 

 then we have the wood trained to these hot walls ; the roots dry and 

 warm, the wood trained on a hot wall — what favourable conditions to 

 ensure well-ripened wood and thoroughly matured buds, and, as a 

 natural consequence, plenty of fruit, which, owing to their not being 

 thinned, are almost worthless. In April last, Mr. Bailey said, " Let 

 our inquiry, then, be this : By what means can we best retard the 

 progress of the abundant blossom with which our fruit trees in the 

 open air are this spring covered." Pray, how do those cottagers 

 retard the progress of blossoms on their hot walls in early springs ? 

 We are not informed of this, which is a very material point ; for if these 

 cottagers, without retarding or covering, get heavy crops of fruit many 

 years running, is it not a proof of what I have so often said, viz. — that 

 with dry warm borders, and well-ripened wood, we may dispense with 

 coverings. Mr. Bailey winds up thus : " Remember, then, gentle 

 reader, that at vStrathfieldsaye there is as fine a wall of Apricots as any 

 in the country, which produced no fruit till protected, and yielded a 

 splendid crop the first most trying season after its application." How 

 Mr. Bailey could pen the above, alter all he had just before told us of 

 the doings at Strathfieldsaye, is to me an enigma. In the same article 

 Mr. Bailey informed us, that " Mr. Johnson, his grace's gardener 

 there (Strathfieldsaye), has for years lost his crop of fruit ; till, under 

 the advice of Mr. Parkes, the eminent drainer, he adopted the Deanston 

 plan of deep drainage, coupling with it an efficient canvas screen, with 

 temporary copings removable at pleasure." ..." The result was, 

 that from being the latest garden in the neighbourhood, it has become 

 one of the earliest." Mr. Bailey quotes Mr. Johnson's words : 

 " Many persons," says Mr. J., " who visited me were sceptical as to 

 the advantages of deep draining, but afler examining the test holes. 



