178 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



causes a loss of time as well as of growing 

 force, and hence ultimately a loss of sap, and con- 

 sequently later bloom. This is not a matter of 

 theory, hut of experience ; a clear loss of a fort- 

 night, not seldom more, is often noted as a result 

 of transplantation, and in this case the loss of time 

 is all in favour of the gain of a crop of fruit. 



Any one who has ever stood or worked against a 

 south wall on a clear sunny day in March, or even 

 in February, will be prepared to acknowledge the 

 potency of artificial shade, and to marvel that it is 

 not more generally used. The fact is, heat in excess 

 in the spring works more mischief than cold. It is 

 the heat that stimulates the fruit-buds into an in- 

 jurable condition ; hence, the wisdom of shading 

 them from the heat of the sun is even more con- 

 spicuous than that of sheltering them from the 

 frost. And the same means rightly used will do 

 both. 



In the use of canvas or such fabrics for shade, 

 however, there must be free ventilation behind, and 

 especially at the top of the screen, else they will but 

 add to the heat by accumulation instead of inter- 

 cepting it. Experience proves that the blooming 

 period may be deferred by several weeks through 

 shading. 



Protection against Cold. — When all that is 

 possible is done to retard the blooming season, the 

 precocity of the Peach and Nectarine still constitutes 

 one of their chief dangers in our climate. Their naked 

 blossoms are unequally matched against our severe 

 frosts, cold rains, and battering snow and hail 

 storms ; hence the necessity, especially in unfavour- 

 able localities, of special protection during this trea- 

 cherous season. 



Among some of the more efficient means of pro- 

 tection, are thick-panelled, winding or recessed 

 walls, wide copings, screens of canvas, bunting, mats, 

 boughs, portable boards, glass, nets, bracken, straw, 

 reeds, asparagus-tops, &c. The practical difficulty 

 in the use of opaque coverings consists in the fact 

 that while they conserve warmth, they also shut out 

 the light, and the exclusion of light renders the 

 trees so much more tender, that practically the 

 effects of protection are nil. The kernel of efficient 

 protection lies in the simultaneous conservation of 

 as much heat, and the admission of as much light, as 

 possible. 



Walls. — Walls, and especially brick walls, nine, 

 fourteen, or twenty-one inches in thickness, are very 

 efficient protectors. They absorb much heat by 

 day, and give it out slowly by night. Their natural 

 colour is, on the whole, the best. By painting 

 them black, they become much hotter by day 



and cooler at night. By painting them white, 

 there is a loss of heat alike by day and night. 

 From ten to twelve feet are good heights for Peach 

 walls, though they may be met with fourteen or 

 more feet in height. 



Partly for economy of material, and ornament 

 and protection, Peach walls have occasionally been 

 built in waving or curved lines. Bold curves of ten 

 or twelve feet on the southern side, with curves half 

 the size on the north, place each Peach-tree in a 

 warm bay. By placing a cordon Pear or other tree 

 at the extremity of the bay, the protective power of 

 such walls is increased. The wind that often sweeps 

 the face of straight walls to the great injury of the 

 trees, is caught and broken by the projecting cor- 

 dons, and the Peaches in the bays are passed over 

 untouched. Pillared or panelled walls, or walls 

 with buttresses at intervals of twenty feet or so, 

 have similar though less potent protective powers. 

 The protective power of straight walls may also be 

 strengthened by running up Apple, Pear, or Plum 

 cordons between the Peach and Nectarine trees. 



It seems singular that heated walls have almost 

 gone out of fashion. By building hollow or flued 

 walls, it is an easy matter to baffle the frost 

 on its own chosen ground — the Peach or Nectarine 

 trees in bloom. It is astonishing how very 

 little heat in flue or hot-water pipe suffices to 

 preserve the trees from injury during cold, clear 

 nights ; and should the heat in the walls be further 

 husbanded by slight coverings, Peaches and Necta- 

 rines may be successfully cultivated in hundreds of 

 gardens in which it is hopeless to attempt them 

 without such assistance. Hollow walls have also 

 merits of their own, besides the affording of facilities 

 for warming by flues or pipes. They heat and also 

 cool more slowly than solid ones, and it is difficult to 

 say which is the greater merit in the culture of the 

 Peach in the open air. 



Wall Copings. — The copings of garden walls 

 should always project about three inches on either 

 side. The coping should be raised in the middle, and 

 a groove run along the under edges a half or three- 

 quarters of an inch from the sides. This groove 

 cuts the drip, as practical men describe it, and sends 

 it to the ground, clear of the trees, thus tending to 

 keep them dry when in bloom, and this helps to 

 protect them from cold, as it is well known that 

 wet flower-buds or blossoms suffer sooner and far 

 more severely from frost than dry ones. However, 

 such copings can do but little to conserve the heat of 

 the wall. To do this effectually, copings of a foot, 

 fifteen, or eighteen inches are needful. But these, if 

 too wide, prevent the dews and rains from reaching 

 the trees, and probably do more harm than good. 



