THE PEA Off A ND NECTA RINE. 581 



them down and renewing the soil, but in general it is far better to root 

 them out and plant young trees. 



Protecting Peach-trees during Winter and Spring. In cold elevated 

 situations some gardeners protect the branches of their peach-trees 

 from severe frost by tucking in among them branches of broom, spruce, 

 fen, birch, or beech, which serve to check the radiation of heat 

 from the wall. Others, when the branches are frozen, water them 

 well before sunrise, which, when the vegetable tissue is not too far 

 ruptured by frost, saves the branches from injury by thawing them 

 more gradually than the sun would do. This mode is only useful 

 when the trees are slightly frozen. Once the tender tissues are rup- 

 tured by the expansive energy of frost, nothing can mend them again. 

 The great thing is to protect the trees with some resisting material or 

 frost-proof screens. A succession of rough straw bands hung a foot 

 from the wall has been found pretty effective. One of the best pro- 

 tections of this character is afforded by the leaves of common fern, 

 tucked in along the shoots as shown in fig. 371. The stalk of the leaf 



Fig. 371. 



Branch of a peach-tree, with the young wood protected by fern. 



is introduced in a shred at the base of the lateral shoot which is to bear 

 the fruit, and the point of it is brought to the point of the lateral ; it 

 is there wound once or twice round the nail near the point of the 

 shoot, taking care to reserve an inch or two of the point of the frond 

 to be turned in between the point of the shoot and the wall, which is 

 a sufficient fastening if properly done. As soon as the fruit is set the 

 fern is removed. 



A more efficient mode, however, of protecting the peach and all 

 other wall-fruit trees, is by a thin canvas covering let down from a 

 temporary wooden coping, as used in the Horticultural Society's Gar- 

 den. Another very good mode is to fix iron rods horizontally to a 

 temporary coping, from which bunting is suspended by rings ; each 

 piece of bunting is of the size of the tree ; and in the day-time it is 

 drawn from the sides to the middle, and fastened to the wall till near 

 sunset, when it is spread out again. A very efficient mode is to cover 

 the wall with double netting, and allow it to remain on till the fruit is 

 fairly set. This mode dispenses with much daily labour, and, like the 

 thin canvas, protects the blossoms from the frequently too powerful 

 rays of the sun, which, striking against a south wall, is more than the 



