196 Domestic Notices. 



most sudden and certain destroyer of fruit that is knowai ; as the chilly 

 air at night hurts the tender parts of the blossoms, and the sun shining 

 hot uj on tlie walls before the moisture is dried from them, which being 

 in small globules, collect the rays of the sun, a scalding heat is thereby 

 acquired, which scorches the tender parts of flowers and other parts of 

 plants. The method to prevent this mischief is, to cover the walls with 

 bunting or convass, fastened so as not to be disturbed by the wind, and 

 suffered to remain on during the night, but taken oflf every day when 

 the weather permits ; although that method is thought by some to be of 

 little sei-vice and may be really prejudicial if the trees be too long cover- 

 ed, or incautiously exposed, yet when this covering is used properly, it 

 frequently proves a great protection to fi-uit-trees ; and if the covei'ing 

 be fixed near the upper part of a wall, and be fastened to pullies so as 

 to draw up or let down occasionally, the operation will be easy and the 

 success will sufficiently repay the trouble. 



Thei-e is another sort of blight that sometimes happens later in the 

 spi-ing, in April or May, which is often very destructive to orchards and 

 plantations, which has liitherto baffled all attempts to prevent it — this is 

 called a fire blast, and in a few hours not only destroys the fruit and 

 leaves, but very often part, and sometimes entire trees ; this is supposed 

 to be effected by volumes of transparent vapors which approach so near 

 to a hemisphere in the upper or lower surface, as to concentrate the rays 

 of the sun so as to scorch the plants or trees ; against this enemy there 

 is no guard. 



Another sort of blight — But that blights are frequently no more than 

 an inward weakness or distemper in trees, will evidently appear, if we 

 consider how often it happens that trees against the same wall, and as- 

 pect, and enjoying the advantages of sun and air, with every other 

 circumstance which might render them equally healthy, are very often 

 observed to differ greatly in strength and vigor ; indeed, we generally 

 find weak trees to be blighted, when vigorous ones in the same situation 

 escape, which must be in a great measure ascribed to their imhealthy 

 constitution. This weakness in trees, therefore, proceeds either from 

 the want of sufficient supplies of nourishment to maintain them in per- 

 fect vigor, or from some ill qualities in the stock, or distemper of the 

 buds or scions, which they had imbibed from the parent trees, or from 

 mismanagement in pruning, &c., all which are productive of distempers 

 in trees, and of which they are with difficulty cured. Now, if that be 

 occasioned by weakness in the trees, we should endeavor to trace out the 

 true cause ; first, whether it has been occasioned by bad pruning, which 

 is often the case ; for, how frequently do we observe peach trees trained 

 up to the full extent of their branches every year, so as to be carried to 

 tlie top of the wall in a few years after planting ; when, at tlie same 

 time, the slioots for bearing have been so weak, as scarcely having 

 streugtii to produce tlieir flowers, this being tlie utmost of their vigor, 

 the i)lossoms fall oft', and many times the branches decay, either the 

 greater part of their Icng'ih, or quite down to the place from whence 

 they were produced ; whenever this happens to be the case it is ascribed 

 to a blight. Others there are who sufler their trees to grow fast, as they 

 are naturally disposed during the snnmier season, without stopping the 

 shoots or disburdening the trees of luxuriant branches, by whicli means 

 two, three, or four shoots will exhaust tlie greater part of the nourish- 

 ment of the trees all the summ(M-,which shoots,at the winter i)runing, are 

 entirely cut out, so that the strength of the trees is employed only in nour- 

 ishing useless branches, and they are thereby rendered so weak as not to 

 be able to preserve themselves ; but should the weakness of the trees 

 proceed from a fixed distem[)er it is the better way to remove them at 

 first; and after renewing the earth, plant new ones in tlieir places; for 



