GENERAL PRACTICE. PROTECTION. 195 



a safe distance by poles, affords the needful shelter. The coping boards and all opaque 

 material should be removed when danger from frost is past. 



Glazed projecting copings sloping downwards are highly useful wall fruit tree 

 protectors, particularly in cold districts, not only in saving the blossom but improving 

 the fruit. The earliest, clearest in colour, and altogether best i'ruits arc produced 

 under those copings. A coping projecting 2 feet for a 10-feet wall, and 2 feet G inches 

 for a 12-feet wall, is ample. Some copings are " reversible," and can be withdrawn by 

 day, or when rain falls to wash the trees and moisten the border; in others the frame- 

 work is fixed on stout brackets secured to the wall ; and glazed on a system by which 

 the glass is readily removed when required. As a rule it should be removed in autumn 

 and replaced when the blossoms need protection. In addition to the protecting coping, 

 wool netting, canvas, or other covering should be suspended from the front, and so 

 contrived as to be easily raised or lowered according to the weather. 



Wall trees may be usefully protected by means of poles and canvas. Place a pole 

 every 6 feet, the top resting under the wall coping, and the bottom let into the ground 

 sufficiently to prevent displacement 18 inches to 2 feet from the wall. At 2 feet from 

 the ground bore a hole with a J-inch auger in each pole, driving in a hard wood 

 peg projecting 9 inches forward. When the canvas is lowered in the day it folds and 

 hangs on the line of pegs. A line of sash-cord is attached to the edge opposite each 

 pole, which has a stout ring fixed with a staple near the top, so as to let the ring hang 

 loose. Through this ring the cord is passed from the under side for pulling up or letting 

 down the canvas. Small pulleys are better than rings, but add to the expense. A 

 binding of small cord at both edges of the canvas adds to its strength and durability. 



Eoughly-spun hay or soft straw bands stretched tightly across poles fixed as shown 

 in the sectional figure (page 194) often afford sufficient protection to the blossoms 

 of the hardier kinds of fruit trees against walls. The bands should be placed 

 horizontally, 6 inches apart for the first yard down the poles, commencing with an 

 extra stout band at the top, 9 inches for the next yard, and 1 foot between the bands 

 for the remainder to within 2 feet of the ground. Spruce and other evergreen branches 

 stuck in behind the main branches of wall trees, and allowed to hang over the 

 blossoms not rest on them afford good protection. 



Old repaired fish-netting is extensively used for the purpose in question, but in 

 severe frosts the shelter is not efficient, though the nets are, on the whole, beneficial. A 

 single thickness of pilchard or double thickness of herring nets is necessary, The 



