26 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 10, 1873. 



to get boid of the opposite one, so as to raise a breed of 

 "Buffalo Berry?" — Jackson Gilleanks. 



[Your plant is bi-sexual, and would be fruitful tinder favour- 

 able circumstances. — Eds.] 



SHADES AND SHELTEES.— No. 2. 



I NOW come to the second part of my subject — viz., shelters 

 or protections against excessive rains, winds, frosts, &c. I do 

 not include glass shelters or wall copings, but merely some of 

 the common means employed to protect garden plants and 

 flowers that are cultivated in the open ah". 



The fickle climate of this country necessitates tho use of 

 many things for protection, and it often happens that the 

 simplest means saves a crop from entire destruction by frost. 

 What would gardeners do without Fern fronds, dry htter, or 

 fresh straw or hay ? Either of these materials when scattered 

 thinly over GoosebeiTV and Currant trees, early Potatoes, 

 Peas, Kidney Beans, salading, and other tender subjects, wUl 

 do wonders in the much-dreaded spring frosts. The object 

 to aim at is to keep a stock of these things in hand, and when 

 they are wanted the work of applying them is trifling. Then 

 there are branches of evergreens not to be despised as a means 

 of shelter. They can be used in many ways, particularly 

 among bedding plants at the time of planting-out. When a bed 

 is finished stick the branches among the plants ; they greatly 

 shelter these from cutting winds and hoar frosts. I do not 

 think it sate to bed-out without this precaution, for if frosts 

 and winds do not prevail the branches are a protection to the 

 plants in the change they undergo. These branches, too, or 

 Fern fronds and straw, may be put on to wooden frameworks 

 of different sizes, to be used as shelters for any tender subject 

 as circumstances may requu-e. Lengths of netting, frigi domo, 

 or canvas may be likewise stretched on a slight framework 

 to be used in a like manner, or for fruit trees against walls. 

 Any material, however, that will admit a sufficiency of the rays 

 of light for the plant's progress is much better than anything 

 causing too much darkening. 



Fig. n. 



A very useful fruit-tree protector is that shown in fir). 5. It 

 is a very light framework of deal or other wood. The two 

 upright pieces have small cross-bars of the same material fixed 

 into them. To these bars is threaded a very thin layer, two or 

 three straws thick, of clean straight straw ; it is cut off even at 

 top and bottom, is made to any height required, and is set into 

 the ground in front of the tree it is intended to protect. This 

 is not put forward as the only means of fruit-tree protection, 

 but it is worthy of more general adoption. When used for wall 

 fruit the top of the uprights, a, n, go just under the wall- 

 caping, and the bottom part from a foot to 18 inches from the 



wall. From 6 to 8 feet is a convenient width ; two men can 

 then put these shelters up or take them down very quickly. 



Fills. 6 and 7 are a wall-shelter called the Waltouian. It is a 

 framework of wood {tip. 6) made to span the top of a 'J-inch wall 

 3J inches down, and has a projecting piece 3 inches from the 

 wall, with an augur-hole at the end; these spanners are placed 



^ 



9m.' 



Sm.^ 



Fig. 7. 



at regular distances along the top of the wall, and the shelter- 

 board, about 18 inches wide, is provided with iron hooks at 

 corresponding distances, inserted as shown at a, thus taking 

 the weight of the board and holding it in position. This shelter 

 is easily fixed, and has proved to be remarkably efficient in 

 throwing-off heavy rains, heavy dews, and for keeping-off hoar 

 frosts while the trees are in bloom. After all danger is past 

 the boards can be taken down as well as the wall-spanners, and 

 put under cover. 



lig. 8 shows a means of protecting newly-planted trees from 

 heat ; it is simply straw or hay bands wound neatly round. 



Fig. 8. 



the stem as high up as where the first branchea diverge. 

 Some first place a thin layer of straw round the body of the 

 tree, and finish it off as shown in the woodcut. Such a plan 

 as this is very suitable to apply to trees that happen to be 

 planted late in the spring, or for such trees as are impatient 

 of removal, as Hollies and Evergreen Oaks, and where they 

 are particularly exposed to the action of the sun. I well re- 

 member once seeing two clumps of Sycamores planted on two 

 mounds during March ; a dozen trees were planted in each 

 clump, but whatever happened to prevent, there was one clump 



