OF PRUNING. SECT. 



of it, as well as at the cast end. Hurdles, covered 

 with a mat, or a cloth called bunting over them, do 

 very well ; and if too short to reach the top of the 

 wall, they may be set upon forked stakes fast in the 

 ground. 



Poles fixed in the ground, at small distances from 

 the wall, and from each other, might be covered 

 with mats, hung on by loops above, and tied below. 



Whatever close covering is used, it should be left 

 no longer on than necessary, and it should be well 

 secured from slipping or rubbing against the tree by 

 wind. It should not be used till the blossoms get a 

 little forward, nor continued longer than while the 

 fruit is well set, being regularly put up at night, and 

 taken off in the day, except in very bad weather : 

 Trees covered too long get sickly, and of course very 

 tender. 



The thinning of fruit, when too thick upon the 

 tree, is a matter that must be attended to, for it will 

 eventually prove loss, and not gain, to leave too 

 many far ripening. It weakens the tree, prevents 

 the knitting of so many, or so strong blossoms for 

 the next year as are desirable, and hinders the 

 fruit from coming to its full size and flavour. Da 

 this work when the fruit is about the size of a horse- 

 bean. 



The rule for thinning should be, to leave no two 

 fruits so close as to swell one against another; ex- 

 cept indeed the tree is generally short of fruit, when 

 twins may be left on strong branches. Three or four, 

 on a long and strong branch, are quite enow, and 

 so in proportion for weaker wood : this is said of 

 the larger sorts of Reaches and nectarines ; apricots 

 may, in general, be left somewhat thicker on a flou- 

 rishing tree, and the lesser kinds of peaches and 

 apricots may still be somewhat more numerous, as 

 the early masculine apricot , the nutmeg peach, and 



