APRIL. 99 



and expose them at night till the buds are unfolding. The longer we 

 deter the flowering period the greater will be the chances of success ; 

 but when the blossoms are opening we must change our tack, cohering 

 at night always, and occasionally screening from very hot suns. 



I am of opinion that jixed coverings fi-equently do more harm than 

 good, from the want of a free circulation of air under them ; and I deem 

 it of the highest import that our screens should be easily moved, thus 

 enabling us to lower or raise them as circumstances may require in our 

 very fickle climate. 



In the Royal Gardens at Frogmore I\Ir. Ingram has succeeded for 

 some years past in securing crops worthy ot royalty by using screens 

 of coarse canvass, which are perfectly at command, and were this 

 plan more general, I have no doubt but it would be attended with 

 concomitant success. 



It is much to be regretted that the zealous enthusiasm of some 

 well-meaning individuals does occasionally lead them into error, and 

 we have recently had instances of this in the marvellous recommenda- 

 tions of JM. de Jonghe and his followers, who have said that by properly 

 thinning the spurs and blossom buds of our fruit trees we can give them 

 a greater degree of constitutional vigour, and by some special acts of 

 hocus pocus enable their tender blossoms to resist severe frost with 

 certainty. My very clever friend (in pomological matters) Mr. Rivers 

 laughs at this doctrine, as well he may, while Mr. Fleming, of 

 Trentham, who is second to none as a cultivator, is constantly adding 

 to his protective apphances, from a firm conviction of their necessity 

 and utility. 



Gentle reader, let us pause for a moment and inquire what is the 

 effect of frost upon tender vegetation, and try to discover, if we can, in 

 what way the operation of pruning, simple or profoundly philosophical, 

 can tend to lessen the mechanical force exerted by the expansion ot 

 fluids in the process of congelation, or arrest the chemical decomposition 

 which ensues after such injury. 



It will, I presume, be on all hands admitted that plants suffer injury 

 from frost in proportion to the quantity of fluid they contain, and that 

 in the process of freezing the sap vessels are ruptured by the progres- 

 sive expansion which takes place in the formation of ice, and that 

 once ruptured the future circulation is arrested, and death and decay 

 follow. 



As a cultivator, I do not deprecate the occasional removal of old and 

 unsightly spurs, which may in time become overcrowded, but I would 

 rather see a tree overloaded than deficient in fruit buds. But that such 

 pruning renders trees capable of having their blossoms exposed to 

 severe frost without injury, is a doctrine which is but one of the 

 chimeras engendered by over enthusiasm. The art of the gardener 

 consists principally (in fruit tree management) in controlling judiciously 

 the energies of the subject for a specific purpose, viz., the production 

 of fruit ; he has ever had, and ever will have, the difficulty of contending 

 with un[)ropitious seasons and fickle climate, — circumstances which he 

 can only securely guard against but by the use of temporary protections, 

 always bearing in mind that retardation is the first step to sure success. 



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