APRIL.] SCREENING BLOSSOMS. 223 



nient size, and made to cover one or more trees, as 

 may be required. 



I have had one sheet 200 feet in length, which I 

 <?ould join or unjoin at two or three different places, 

 and could unclew and hoist, or lower and clew up, in 

 fifteen or twenty minutes. I first contrived it to 

 clew at the top of the wall, but afterwards found it 

 safer to do it at bottom, as a gust of wind had once 

 nearly torn it away altogether. ( In the clew, it was 

 hung by loops to the bottom part of the upright 

 spars, (which were placed at four feet asunder,) so as 

 to be a few inches clear of the ground. These 

 rafters were fastened with hooks and eyes, to the 

 coping at top ; and at bottom, to stakes drove fast 

 into the earth, eighteen inches clear of the wall. 



In using these screens, in either of the above men- 

 tioned forms, the trees are always to be exposed 

 to the free air and light, in good weather, through 

 the day ; screening only at night, and on bad days; 

 applying them from the time the buds begin to open, 

 till the fruit is fairly set ; or till any fear of further 

 danger from the effects of frost be past. 



Some apply screens of mats, sewed together, or 

 bound in frames, in manner as above ; and they are 

 sometimes hung singly over the trees, on hooks or 

 pegs. But in no way are they so good, effectual, or 

 ultimately so cheap screens, as those of canvas. 



Nets make very good permanent screens , if properly 

 constructed and put on. The ordinary way of ap- 

 plying these, is to hang them over the trees, without 

 any seeming consideration of itfiy ; as they are ge- 

 nerally hung over, close to the branches j the flower- 



