THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 71 
will perhaps afford the most effectual protection from a severe frost, 
but it cannot be recommended, for, unless it can be moved during 
the daytime, or at least during periods of bright warm weather, it 
will do more harm than good, and, without the aid of rings and iron 
rods or rollers and lines, this work will be attended with much 
trouble. Canvas or netting should be fixed along the edge of the 
coping by means of small hooks placed at intervals, and be brought 
down to within about fifteen inches of the ground, and the nets 
should be double. The netting may be new, but old fish nets, which 
ean be purchased at a very low rate, are in every way suitable. When 
no coping is fixed, the upper edge of the protective materials must 
be fixed just under the capping to the wall, and be kept at a distance 
of eighteen inches or so from the trees with the aid of poles placed 
in a slanting direction. 
Very efficient protection may be afforded to wall fruits with the 
aid of branches of the spruce fir and various evergreen shrubs. 
These must be divided into rather small portions, as branchlets from 
fifteen to twenty-four inches in length are the most convenient to 
place over the trees. In covering wall surfaces with these, com- 
mence at the lower part and work upwards, and use nails about two 
inches in length to hang the branches upon. Frequently, they are 
hung upon the nails with which the shoots are fastened to the wall, 
but it is not good practice, for, either in putting the branches upon 
the trees or taking them off, many of the nails are drawn out and 
the shoots displaced. Branches of fir and evergreens are the best 
of all for the protection of pyramidal and bush trees, for by hanging 
them rather close together upon the outer branches, they afford the 
flowers and tender fruits most efficient protection from frost. 
As it is essential that the light and air should not be excluded 
from the young growth a day longer than can be avoided, the cover- 
ings, whether nets, canvas, or the more primitive branches, must be 
removed as soon as it can be done with safety. The young fruit is 
in as much danger of being cut off as the flowers, and until the 
middle of May we are not safe from frosts. It may, however, be 
regarded as fairly out of danger when sufficient growth has been 
made to envelope the fruit with foliage. In some of the books on 
fruit culture, the cultivator is advised to commence disbudding as 
soon as the shoots are an inch or so in length, but I would not have 
even a leaf removed until all danger from frost is past, because of the 
protection afforded by the foliage. 
HOTBEDS, AND HOW TO MANAGE THEM. 
BY A KENTISH GARDENER. 
@OTBEDS, when properly made, are of such immense ser- 
vice during the spring season, that wherever gardening 
is carried on with some degree of spirit an effort should 
be made to have one. With theaid of a one or two-light 
* frame, placed upon a bed of well-sweetened ferment- 
ing materials, the work of propagating a stock of bedding plants is 
March. 
