42 LIGHT. 



temperature of the summer should be moderate. 

 Thus the seasons following a cold winter are the 

 golden ones for the fruit-grower. 



' 7. The effect of electricity may be considered in 

 treating of the causes of American pear-blight. 



8. Light is another essential requirement of 

 vegetation. It has a great influence in maturing 

 the wood of the plant. In places where it is absent 

 the foliage becomes sickly, and a poor, unripe 

 growth is the consequence. It affects not only the 

 growth of the tree, but also the quantity and quality 

 of the fruit. A writer ^ in the Gardeners' Chronicle 

 says: "I send you a few peaches, taken from a tree 

 which was brought to this garden as a nursery-plant 

 in 1832; the following winter it was planted where 

 it now stands, the wall and border being both new. 

 For the first ten years I do not recollect that it 

 ever bore a fruit, owing to a large sycamore wdiich 

 overshadowed the wall where it stood. The tree 

 being an object visible from various parts of the 

 premises, my master felt the greatest reluctance to 

 take it down ; but about ten years ago he consented 

 to remove it, and since that time the peach tree, 

 which had never before that carried a single fruit, 

 has rewarded us with a fine crop every year. The 

 number this year upon the tree was thirty dozens ; 



1 John rovcy, Thoriicycroft llall, England. 



