COPINGS. 



123 



COPINGS. 



tion admits of the temporary coping being 

 placed in a slanting position. 



Protection afforded by copings. Copings 

 projecting too far are said to deprive the 

 leaves of the vigour they derive from sum- 

 mer rains and heavy dews, although they 

 are useful in spring, when the trees are in 

 blossom, and up to the time when the fruit 

 is set. At this season, even in the drier 

 climate of France, it is found necessary to 

 protect the tender blossoms from the late 

 frosts, hail, snow, and cold rains of spring, 

 which are very fatal to stone fruit ; the walls 

 in France being generally trellised, in order 

 to protect the trees from the intensity of the 



FIG. 6. STRAW PROTECTORS FOR FRUIT TREES. 



heat produced by radiation, as distinguished 

 from our own moist climate, where the 

 practice is reversed. To carry the protect- 

 ing material, an angular frame-work of 

 wood is attached to the trellis, projecting 

 some twenty inches or so from the wall, at 

 an inclination of 50. When the tree 

 begins to vegetate, toward the second week 

 of February, hurdles of straw attached to 

 rods of wood, 7 feet 4 inches in length by 

 2 feet broad, as in Fig. 6, are placed on 

 triangular frames, as shown in Fig. 7, so as 

 to shelter the tree at the time when it is in 

 blossom, till it has 

 begun to stone. In 

 these frames the 

 piece B is passed 

 behind the trellis, 

 the piece A takes 

 and supports the 

 protector, c acts as 

 a strut against the 

 wall to sustain the 

 straw hurdle and its support A, and n 

 is a connecting upright to stiffen the 



FIG. 7. BRACKET FOR 

 STRAW HURDLE. 



frame. When the trellis is absent, pro- 

 jecting' rods of wood are attached under 

 the coping, as in Fig. 8, upon which the 

 hurdles are laid in lengths, at a similar 

 r i i T~J i i i / t / i i / i i ) i i 



. I ' ' ' 



1 1 1 



FIG. 8. RODS OF WOOD TO SUPPORT STRAW 

 PROTECTORS. 



angle. This shelter, M. Du Breuil declares, 

 is indispensable for stone fruit. Apples 

 and pears are also benefited by the shelter, 

 especially when exposed to a north or west 

 aspect, or in damp localities. This protec- 

 tion, however, according to the same autho- 

 rity, which suffices while the temperature 

 stands at i or i| below zero, becomes 

 useless when it descends to 3, or even 2, 

 which too frequently sweeps away the hopes 

 of the fruit gardener. The walls should 

 then be protected by means of a rough 

 canvas, such'' as is used by paperhangers to 

 cover walls before papering, which is 

 attached to the projecting hurdles, A, in 



FIG. 9. FRENCH SHELTER OF CANVAS FOR 

 FRUIT TREES. 



Fig. 9, under the coping at B, and at the 

 bottom, c, to posts, D, driven into the 



