38 THE OKCHARD AXD TRUIT GABDEN. 



There are few fruit-growers who have not watched the 

 opening buds with pleasure and hope, flattering them- 

 selves that the apparently settled spring weather, and 

 daily increasing heat of the sun were making the 

 expectation of fruit a reality, when a sudden night 

 frost, not seeming much perhaps, or storm of snow or 

 hail, has raised doubt and fear ; they have watched the 

 blossom after it, and soon the unmistakable black wither- 

 ing of the pistil tells the tale of mischief done, soon 

 to be confirmed by the non-swelling of the fruit, and its 

 final falling off. 



This vexatious loss of fruit, sometimes year after 

 year, renders some kind of protection to fruit trees 

 almost necessary, in many localities, in the early spring. 

 Apples often produce good crops, when pears and 

 other fruits are cut off to a great extent, because they 

 bloom later: our frosts and other inclemencies are 

 seldom late enough to interfere with them, but the 

 earlier blooming fruits almost as seldom entirely 

 escape. 



The best protection for wall fruit is a thin canvas, or 

 other light material hung in front of the trees, touching 

 the wall at the top and borne out from it at an angle 

 to the bottom. Frost has such a downfalling tendency, 

 that the most important thing is to give protection 

 above the top of the tree. In fact frost so generally 

 does mischief falling vertically, not piercing horizontally, 

 that two or three feet breadth of covering fixed to the 

 top of the wall, and carried out from it on a slant, will 

 often save the crop. 



In fixing the protecting material, great care must be 

 taken that it cannot beat backwards and forwards upon 

 the bloom, or chafe it in any way, or the mischief it may 

 do may be greater than that from the weather. 



Almost any material will do ; it should be thin and 

 light. Now that ladies' dresses are worn so full, the 

 industrious may convert worn-out skirts into very good 

 screens for fruit trees. A very thin material made of 

 wool is perhaps the best of any, being a non-conductor 

 of heat, and of a less clinging habit than cotton or 



