JANUARY. 13 



Now, from the period of blooming to a month after is just the time 

 Peaches and Nectarines require protection the most from cutting winds, 

 saying nothing of the alternation between a hot mid-day sun and a fall 

 of the thermometer to below the freezing point by night. Are these 

 coverings, then, to be kept on to the manifest injury of the trees, by 

 weakening the blooms and drawing the young shoots, or taken off and 

 put on according to the state of the weather ? " To this I reply, that if 

 these coverings be applied all over the trees to the thickness of a door- 

 mat the blooms will, without doubt, be weak ; but surely no intelligent 

 gardener would apply them in this way. But if " J. M." leaves it to 

 an ignorant labourer to do, such may happen. The evil results, which 

 " J. M." would attribute to the use of canvas-rolls and Fir-branches, 

 may also (and often does) arise fi'om other causes. One cause is, im- 

 perfectly ripened wood. When the wood is badly ripened the blooms, 

 as a matter of course, will be weak. Now this may be " J. M.'s " 

 case ; for if the wood be thoroughly ripened, what need is there of pro- 

 tection before blooming, as he recommends ? If the wood be properly 

 ripened no degree of cold will injure it. For instance, in the United 

 States of America, notwithstanding the severity of the winters, the 

 Peach is an orchard tree, and stands uninjured a degree of cold rarely 

 experienced in Britain. The wood of the Peach tree in America is vrell 

 ripened, and that it is which enables it to resist frosts. But if the 

 wood is unripe — as perhaps was " J. M.'s " case — then farewell all 

 hopes of crops. 



" J. M." may have often noticed the difference between the blooms 

 on the natural spurs of the Apricot and those on the young wood. The 

 latter are in general weak, and mostly drop off without any fruit set- 

 ting ; whilst the former are properly developed blooms, and, in nine 

 seasons out of ten, will, without any protection whatever, set sufficient 

 fruit for a crop. 



As the facts I will by and by state, and some of the remarks I will 

 have to make on " Helminthion's " article will apply equally to 

 " J, M.'s" communication, I will leave the latter for the present, and 

 address myself to the former. 



In the first place, I object to " Helminthion's " throwing overboard 

 all other descriptions of fruits except Peaches, Nectarines, and Apricots. 

 It is hardly consistent for him to do so, because we have himself and 

 the other advocates of protectives affirming "that Apples, Pears, Plums, 

 Cherries, Potatoes, early Strawberries, and other crops, in the southern 

 and western parts of England, were all swept away by the frost of 

 April 24, 1854." 



Now, of all the fruits in cultivation. Apples are the most indispens- 

 able ; they have become one of the necessaries of life with the middle 

 and working classes in this country. Peaches and Nectarines are dessert 

 fruits, and their use is, as a matter of course, confined to the higher 

 classes of society in this country. Apricots, besides being a dessert 

 fruit, make one of our best preserves ; but their use, owing to the high 

 price of the fruit in this country, is principally confined to the wealthy 

 classes of society. But Apples and Plums, on the contrary, are used by 

 the minions of the working classes, more particularly the former. 



