226 PEOTECTING FKUIT BLOSSOMS. 



that of the Horticultural Society itself — sometimes dwelling on 

 the advantages of late bloomers escaping the spring frosts. 



I M'ould therefore respectfully advise those who feel an in- 

 terest in the matter to consider well whether such arguments 

 possess in reality weight. To retard safely, however, an early 

 beginning is necessary. To wait until the bud is half developed 

 is to arrest that reciprocation between root and branch which 

 has already commenced, and on which the developing bud de- 

 pends in a great degree for its vital action. This lively motion 

 in the sap will be obvious to any one who considers for a moment 

 the phenomena connected with the bleeding of vines or birch 

 trees in the act of tapping for the purposes of wine making, and 

 in the peeling of oak bark ; all of which may be placed in the 

 same category. All these, I say, sufficiently attest the activity 

 of the fluids at a very early period, even to the most unscientific 

 observer ; and it is by no means too much to infer, that a con- 

 siderable portion of tlie damage occurring to fruit blossoms in 

 early spring results from tiie arrest of the fluids through fluc- 

 tuations in atmospheric temperature. 



To retard therefore in earnest is simply to prolong the de- 

 parture of the winter, and thus to increase the chances of a ge- 

 nial atmosphere. It is well known that the earth becomes, through 

 the daily increasing power of the solar rays, a reservoir of heat, 

 and that this accumulated warmth serves, by radiation, to qualify 

 the circumambient atmo.sphere during the night. Now, by a 

 very early retardation this accumulation is very much impeded ; 

 and hence a tendency in the buds to remain nearly stationary for 

 a much longer period. It will be found good practice, then, to 

 apply coverings at once protective and retarding in the end of 

 January ; for by that period the sun at intervals exercises much 

 influence, especially on the southern walls of gardens. How 

 often have we seen the blossom buds of peaches, nectarines, &c., 

 look truly alarming through their much advanced state in the 

 course of Februaiy ! — indeed it is astonishing what an amount of 

 solar heat will at times be generated near the surface of a south 

 wall when the sun shines on it for hours in the absence of wind. A 

 canvas covering, after the manner of a conservative wall, will 

 doubtless be found the best policy in the end ; especially if the 

 wall possess a good coping of some 15 inches ; the canvas work- 

 ing as a curtain. 



Spruce boughs are, however, excellent things, for they possess 

 the desirable property of casting their leaves in a progressive 

 way, and that, too, in the very period in which such a change in 

 their opacity becomes really necessary. 



I would now beg to advert to another and collateral point of 

 no mean consequence in the course suggested, and that is that by 



