PROTECTING THE FLOWERS. 97 



for use a week or two hence. The best temporary 

 protecting material that I am acquainted with is a 

 kind of perforated cotton canvas known in the 

 horticultural trade as No. 5 hexagon shading. Two 

 widths of this, consisting of fifty-four inches each, 

 being joined together will afford ample protection 

 to trees in flower trained against walls from nine 

 to twelve feet high. This should be bound top and 

 bottom with broad tape, stretching lengths of the 

 same crosswise at intervals of about ten feet the 

 entire length of the cloths. On to these fasten 

 about nine rings, through which and the pulleys 

 to pass the sash-lines for the purpose of raising and 

 lowering the cloths when necessary. I have used 

 this kind of material, as already stated, for twenty- 

 five years for protecting not only peaches but also 

 apricots and greengage plums with satisfactory 

 results, the fruits having set so thickly on the trees 

 as to render severe thinning necessary. The blinds, 

 as already stated, are raised and lowered by means 

 of sash-lines and pulleys, fixed in the following 

 manner: A series of light poles, varying from three 

 to four inches in diameter at the bottom to two inches 

 at the top, the latter having a slice one inch thick, 

 and three inches deep, cut off one side to screw 

 strips of board of the same dimensions to, on which 

 to secure the cloth and screw pulleys and hooks for 

 raising and looping up the blinds by means of 



