136 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
dampness, the frost, and scorching by the sun are no longer to be feared, 
as in the case of those trees in the open air. When the warmth inereases 
as the season advances, it becomes necessary to give more air to the 
trees by raising the trap-net at the bottom, or removing the straw which 
protects the sides. The whole may be entirely dispensed with only when 
the temperature causes no more fear. It will be found expedient to 
leave the frames as long as possible, because they greatly advance the 
growth of the fruit. * 
Pépin has succeeded, by the suppression of leaves before their natu- 
ral fall, in saving the delicate slips from the efiect of the frost. Thouin 
has obtained the same results by the suppression of the fruits of the 
second season on fig trees. According to Bonafons, the first practice is 
habitually applied in Sweden to most of the woody plants, and also in 
Piedmont to the mulberry tree. According to Puvis, those trees which 
are not stripped by the worms, and whose harvesting is consequently 
more normal, are better defended than those whose summer stripping 
forces a second sprouting in the same season. According to Saubiae, 
in Ariege, France, the best preventive of the injury by the later frosts 
upon the vine is a late pruning, which arrests the development of new 
buds. t 
Another horticulturist proposes the following method for protecting 
shrubs and young trees from the frosts: Two half cylinders are formed 
of wood, as if to be covered with wicker-work, but, instead of being 
thus completed, they are plaited or woven over with the material of 
which bee-hives are composed. These half-cylinders have strong legs 
attached, which are thrust into the ground, and wheré the design is 
merely to shelter the plant from the east or northeast wind, only one is 
placed on the side to be protected ; but where the shrub is tender and 
requires more complete shelter, two are placed together and fastened to 
each other with hooks; over them is placed a cover, aud thus is formed * 
& protection more complete than any formed of other materials, and 
more efficacious against the frost. These cylinders are comparatively 
light, easily applied or removed, and exceedingly warm, for scarcely any 
frost will penetrate them, so completely do they prevent the escape ot 
the heat which arises from the native warmth of the earth. If the 
ground be hard, holes may be made for the supports with a crow-bar or 
the point of a pick, but in most cases a pointed stake of any sort may 
be used; and when the covering is properly placed, so as to be close to 
the ground, some loose earth may be put around the bottom to prevent 
any air from getting under it. The earth should also be closed around 
the legs by ramming, in order to fasten them down.i 
An experimenter says that in protecting pits and frames, the covering, 
if placed on the glass, absorbs the heat; but if located at-a short dis- 
tance above the glass, it radiates the heat, and keeps the external air 
from acting on the frame at all. Now, nothing can be more obvious 
than the following conclusions: If the radiation of heat from cloth, 
which touches nothing, will keep the external air from acting on the 
frames at all, it will prevent the externa! air from acting upon anything 
else; and this is sufficient to satisfy us that cloth prepared with trans- 
parent varnishes, and used instead of glass, must be efficient as a means 
of protection; and I am even inclined to believe that its advocates are 
right in saying that it is more effective than glass. In regard to the 
‘question of light, as we are always shading in bright weather, so for 
s 
> 
* Annales de la Société @’ Horticulture. Paris, 1843, vol. xxxvi, pp. 247-250. 
t Annales de la Société @ Horticulture. Paris, 1840, vol. xxvi, pp. 8, 9. 
} The Gardener and Practical Florist. London, 1843, vol. i, pp. 285, 286. 
