74 PROTECTING FROM FROST. 
driven in with a hammer. Care should be taken that the pieces of 
list are long enough to allow of the free passage of the sap, and yet 
not so long as to permit the branch to be so agitated by the wind as 
to bruise itself against the wall. The nails should also never be 
driven in so as to wound or corrode the bark; and when driving in 
the nails, the gardener should be very careful not to bruise the branch 
with his hammer. The shreds should be broad enough not to cut 
the bark, and yet not so broad as to cover the buds; and they should, 
as much as possible, be of some uniform and dark colour. As few 
shreds should be used as are sufficient to attain the end in view; but 
these should be very firmly attached, as nothing gives a more gloomy 
picture of misery and desolation in a garden, than trees that once 
were trained, having become detached, and hanging drooping from 
the wall. Sometimes wires are fastened to walls, to which the 
plants are tied with strands of bast mat; the strand, afler it is put 
round the branch and the wire, being gently twisted between the 
finger and thumb, in order that it may make a firm knot without 
tearing or weakening the ligament. Climbing shrubs are tied to the 
pillars of a verandah, or to trellis work, in the same manner; as are 
aiso flowers to sticks, or slight wooden or wire frames, with the ex- 
ception that, in their case, the bast does not require twisting. 
Protecting from frost is an essential part of culture to a lady gar- 
dener, particularly in so uncertain a climate as that of England. Not 
only the blossoms of peaches and nectarines, and those of other early 
flowering fruit-trees, are liable to be injured by the spring frosts; but 
those of the tree pwzony, and other beautiful shrubs, are frequently 
destroyed by them; and, unfortunately, many of the modes of pro- 
tection, by knocking off and bruising the blossoms, are almost as in- 
jurious as the frosts that they are intended to guard against. Twist- 
ing a straw-rope round the trunk of the tree, and putting its ends 
into a bucket of water, is certainly a simple method, and it has been 
recommended as a very efficacious one. When a mat is used to 
protect wall trees, it does perhaps least injury to the blossoms, when 
curtain rings are sewed to its upper end, and it is hung by these on 
hold-fasts, or large hooks, driven into the upper part of the wall. “To 
make it more secure, particularly in windy weather, it may be tied 
on the sides with bast to nails driven into the wall; and a broad 
moveable wooden coping should rest on the hold-fasts, and cover the 
space between the mat and the wall, to prevent injury from what are 
