96 THE BOOK OF THE PEACH. 



free current of air passing between the sun-warmed 

 wall and the trees serving to retard flowering time. 



PROTECTING THE FLOWERS FROM FROST. 



Bearing in mind the commercial value of a good 

 crop of peaches such as may annually be obtained 

 from trees growing against walls and fences out- 

 of-doors by the exercise of timely forethought and 

 judicious management, the incurring of small 

 expenses in the way of labour and initial cost of 

 protecting material need not, therefore, be viewed 

 in any other light than that of a safe and paying 

 investment, seeing that the adoption of the protect- 

 ing material and mode of using it described below 

 renders the securing of a good crop of peaches every 

 year pretty well certain. That which I here recom- 

 mend I employed for twenty-five years in Langford 

 Castle Gardens, near Salisbury, and never once 

 failed to obtain a good " set " of fruit, and during 

 that period I have on several occasions described 

 and recommended the modus operandi in the 

 gardening press for the benefit of peach-growing 

 readers. 



In the first week in February the time may be 

 said to be at hand when peach and nectarine 

 blossoms will require to be protected from frosts, 

 and protective material should be provided ready 



