12 THE FLORIST. 



ori(?inator of glass walls designated " antiquated." I am as great an 

 advocate of progress as either "J. M." or " Helminthion ; " but, on 

 takinor a retrospective glance of the progress of gardening for the last 

 twenty years, while I teel pleased at the advance it has made in many 

 ways, I at the same time can recollect many, very many, so-called 

 inventions and discoveries, which the authors of them assured us would 

 work wonders, but which now, alas ! are numbered among the things 

 that were. I need not particularise any, as " J. M." and " Helmin- 

 thion " will themselves probably recollect something of the kind. 



I will now make a few extracts from "J. M.'s " article, to show his 

 reasons for advocating glass coverings. He says — " Have we not 

 proofs that the frost that night (April 24) swept away all hopes of a 

 crop of fruit from the gardens and orchards through a wide extent of 

 country in the southern and western parts of England ? From my own 

 experience I can affirm that Apples, Pears, Plums, and Cherries, are 

 all but entirely gone ; and, going from the subject, that Potatoes, early 

 Strawberries, and some other crops suffered equally." It is surprising 

 to me how the writer of the above could, in the same page, and immedi- 

 ately after, write as follows : — " I need not inform your readers how 

 comparatively small a surface of fruit trees protected by glass, and the 

 chance of a crop made surer, is sufficient to produce as large a quan- 

 tity of fruit as a great extent of walls." At present I will merely ask 

 " J. M." if he intends recommending glass coverings as a preventive 

 of that wholesale destruction of crops just mentioned above ? Again, 

 " J. M." says — " I am quite at a loss to see how trees, protected by 

 glass, and consequently where the operator can work at them, in the 

 dry all weathers, should require more labour than trees on the open 

 walls. Most assuredly a man dry and comfortable could tie in a tree 

 to a trelHs, or even nail it to a M^all, as expeditiously as if it stood on 

 the wet ground, and exposed to the open weather of winter or early 

 spring?" Granted. But how does "J. M." intend to manage the 

 ventilation of his glass cases? Again, does he purpose leaving the 

 glass on the trees the year round, or does he remove it at any time ? 

 If he does, is it all done without labour ? Again, " J. M." says — 

 " All gardeners know the great labour during summer with wall trees 

 is to keep them clean, and casks of tobacco water and much labour are 

 each season required to keep down the various aphides which infest 

 wall trees ; whereas, when enclosed by glass, one or two fumigations 

 with tobacco paper will be sufficient to destroy effectually this pest. 

 In fact, on the score of labour, taking into account the facilities for 

 working and training the trees in all weathers, I consider the balance 

 fairly on the side of trees protected by glass." Does " J. M." find one 

 or two fumigations with tobacco paper to destroy effectually the red 

 spider ? How does he manage to keep that pest from his Peach trees 

 under glass, when he keeps the atmosphere sufficiently dry to mature 

 the wood properly ? 



I will make one more quotation from " J. ]\I.'s " article. He says — 

 " One word more, and I have done. Fir- boughs. Fern, and the like, 

 are useful protectors for trees before they bloom, but they should be 

 removed immediately the blooms expand, or they will open weakly. 



