88 



GARDEN MANAGEMENT. 



is a boarding nine inches wide, supported on iron brackets, to which tho 

 boards are attached by screws. In the Horticultural Society's Gardens the 

 copings are more inclined, the stone coping projecting two inches ; and six 

 inches thick of York paving, Caithness flag, Ackworth paving-stone, and various 

 heads of slate of the Pembrokeshire and other Welsh counties, make excellent 

 coping stone. Roman cement has been tried ; asphalt has also been tried 

 successfully. Glass, six inches thick, and bevilled, has been thought the best 

 material for coping, being perfectly indestructible by the weather ; and cast 

 iron has been found to answer. As to shape, the flat coping, with a groove 

 to carry ofi" the water, is supposed to be excellent. A very good coining is 

 sometimes formed of brick and cement, as on the other side. Another form 

 of coping strongly recommended is a stone, sloping on each side, laid on a 

 flat one placed horizontally over the wall. 



209. Copings projecting too far are said to deprive the leaves of the vigour 

 they derive from summer rains and heavy dews, although they are useful in 

 spring, when the trees are in blossom, and up to the time when the fruit is 

 set. At this season, even in the drier climate of France, it is found necessary 

 to protect the tender blossoms from the late frosts, hail, snow, and cold rains 

 of spring, which are very fatal to stone-fruit ; the walls in France being 

 generally trelUsed, in order to protect the trees from the intensity of the heat 

 produced by radiation, as distinguished fi'om our own more moist climate, 

 where the practice is reversed : an angular framework of wood is attached 

 to the trellis, projecting some twenty inches or so from the wall, at an 

 inclination of 50°. "When the tree begins to vegetate, towai-ds the second 

 v.cek of February, hurdles of straw attached to rods of 

 wood, 7 feet 4 in. in length by 2 feet broad (fig. A A), 

 are placed on the triangular frame, so as to shelter the tree 

 at the time when it is in blossom, till it has begun to stone, 

 resting on the trelhs ADC. When the ti'ellis is absent, pro- 

 jecting rods of wood are attached under the coping, upon 

 which the hurdles are laid in lengths, at a similar angle. 

 Brieul assures us, is indispensable for stone-fruit. Apples 

 and pears are also benefitted by the shelter, espe- 

 cially when exposed to a north or west aspect, or 

 in damp localities. This protection, however, ac- 

 cording to the same authority, which suflSces while 

 the temperature 

 stands at 1° or 

 1^° below zero, 

 becomes useless- 

 when it descends 

 to 3% or even 

 which too 

 quently sweeps 

 ftway the hopes of the fruit-gardener. The walls should then be protected by 



■This shelter, M. 



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