296 THE FLORIST. 



and Cherries average ; Apples and Pears very thin — some trees 

 were covered and some were not. Haythorn's hexagon netting was 

 used, but he has observed this season better crops upon those trees 

 that were fully exposed than upon those covered. 



Mr. George Sclater, Stackpole Court, Pembroke, was here called, 

 and he stated that the crops of wall iruit in his neighbourhood were very 

 bad indeed, and he might say the same of all out-door fruits. The 

 only protection he uses are ten-inch coping-boards ; his walls are very 

 much exposed to the south-west winds direct from the Bristol Channel, 

 and he finds the coping-boards very beneficial when the trees are in 

 full bloom, and afterwards laid aside ; his borders he well drains, and 

 he finds where this is attended to, with judicious summer treatment, 

 that he gets equally good crops upon the unprotected as upon the pro- 

 tected trees, and, this season, those trees which were fully exposed are 

 by far the best. 



Mr. E. Durrant, Bushall Park, Saxmundham, Suffolk, stated that 

 the crops of fruit were very thin in his locality. Some portion of his 

 trees he covered, aud some he did not, but has quite as many where he 

 did not cover. He has paid great attention to drainage these last few 

 years, and thinks when this is not attended to a slight covering is 

 necessary. 



Mr. Stevens, Malvern Hall, Solihull, Warwickshire, has not employed 

 defendant these four years : his crops of Peaches and Nectarines, 

 Pears and Plums were never more abundant, and his crop of Apricots 

 an average one. He used formerly to employ defendant in the shape 

 of inch netting doubled and hung from the coping over the trees, but he 

 looks at protection now as an unnecesmry addition to garden expendi- 

 ture. He also stated that the general crops in his neighbourhood were 

 very thin indeed, but very little attention was paid to their cultivation 

 on scientific principles. This witness also stated that he had care of 

 the wall fruit department in the gardens of the Horticultural Society at 

 Chiswick, under Mr. Thompson, some few years since ; there they 

 never used protection for many of the Peaches and Nectarines, 

 excepting nine-inch coping-boards, and always had good crops 



Mr. James Kitley, Lyncomb Vale, Bath, next deposed to the crops 

 being very thin in his neighbourhood ; he has a quarter of a mile of 

 wall, and being immediately upon the freestone requires no drainage. 

 Witness never uses protection ; he finds that he loses more than he 

 gains by it ; it is but seldom he fails in having a crop. 



Mr. J. Stevenson, Lambton Castle, Durham, here stated that the 

 crops were a complete failure in his locality ; that he never covers, and 

 seldom fails to get a crop ; he attributed his failure to the want of sun last 

 autumn to ripen the wood ; as a general rule, has better crops without 

 than with covering. 



T. W. Abbott, Ribston, upon being called, stated that he had good 

 crops upon all his walls ; Apricots upon a west wall set their fruit like 

 ropes of onions ; that defendant never enters his doors — he knows him 

 ■ well, but can do without him ; he never fails to have a crop. He also stated 

 that his father, for fifty years, never admitted defendant to his presence, 

 and that his crops of wall fruit were yearly the admiration of the whole 



