222 Use of a new Kind of Wire Netting 



parably belter suited to the purpose. Among the many proofs 

 of the injurious tendency of covers, in their present state, I may 

 mention a fine plant of the .Rhododendron Smith//, in the col- 

 lection above named, that was killed to the ground; while a layer, 

 that could not be included in the basket, had not a leaf injured. 



This case might also be adduced as an example in favour of 

 the system I have advocated in this paper, if we suppose that the 

 covering drew an undue share of sap into the part covered, 

 leaving the layer a scanty supply, and consequently better able 

 to resist the cold. 



Folkstone, Feb. I. 1839. 



Art. IV. On the Use of a new Kind of Wire Netting, for various 

 Purposes, in Gardening and Planting, SfC. By S. T. 



Some time after the completion of my garden, I was grievously 

 annoyed by hares and rabbits, sad enemies, as you are aware, to 

 flowers and young plants in general. They began to bark my 

 apple trees, and I barked at them in return, but the deuce a bit 

 could I bite. At last chance threw in my way a piece of wire 

 netting ; and by and with the assistance of a friend in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Swaffham, who for the last ten years has made and 

 used them for sheepfolds (he has 1000 yards in constant use), I 

 have put my gardener in the way of manufacturing them ; and it 

 enables his family at all times, and himself at an " orra hour," 

 when work is dead, as in sharp frosts or deep snows, to turn 

 many an hour to good account, which would otherwise be un- 

 employed, or at all events not profitably employed. To return 

 to my garden. It is surrounded by a clipped whitethorn fence, 

 not game-proof, as you may suppose; especially when I tell you 

 it is weak in places. On the outside of this fence I have hung 

 my wire net; and though two years have elapsed, and we have 

 had some tolerably sharp weather, I have never been troubled 

 with either hare or rabbit since. But how does it look? you 

 will ask. It does not look at all ; for you may stand within two 

 yards of it, and no one, that was not in the secret, could tell that 

 there was any other than the whitethorn fence. I clip over it, 

 and there it remains in the hedge, as effectually guarding against 

 depredation as if it were a clumsy unsightly wall. Observe, I 

 took care to peg it carefully down to the bank ; and well, I 

 must needs say, it answers the purpose. The dimensions of this 

 net are as follows : 21 in. deep, and each mesh rather more than 

 l l\ in. square — say, 8 meshes in the 21 in. Several, who saw 

 it before it was put down, expressed doubts as to whether young 

 rabbits would not make their way through. For my own part, 

 I had no fears on the subject, and the result has proved I was 



