i94 



FRUITS. 



[chap. 



their keeping off the sun and air from Ihe buds and the fruit, they 

 generally do as much harm as good. Frosts descend ; that is to 

 say, their destructive effect comes down upon a tree perpendicu- 

 larly. It is not the cold that destroys the germ of the fruit. It 

 is the wet joined to the cold. That which is dry will not freeze ; 

 frost has power ®n those things only which have moisture in them ; 

 and though there is moisture in the blossom, that is not sufficient 

 of itself to give the frosts the power of destruction. When frosts 

 come without rain or dews, they do very little harm to blossoms. 

 Therefore, the thing to be desired is something to keep oif the 

 wet during the time that the blossom is becoming a fruit. The 

 best way of doing this is to have something going out from the 

 top of the wail to about a foot and a half wide, which might 

 remain day and night, until the dangerous season were over. 

 The thing recommended by a very able and experienced French 

 writer, M. De Comble, is a board of that width, supported by 

 posts at convenient distances. These posts, however, besides 

 their unsightliness, I object to on account of the holes that must 

 be made for placing them in the ground. To obviate this, and 

 to cause the operation to be little troublesome, I would, in the 

 building of my wall, have, in the row of bricks next to the top 

 row, what the bricklayers call a wooden brick, at suitable dis- 

 tances. In these wooden bricks (to be made of the most durable 

 wood) might be holes for the purpose of admitting the end of a 

 stout piece of iron, about perhaps two feet long, besides the part 

 necessary to enter into the brick. When the blooming season 

 arrived, and just before the blossoms began to burst, these pieces 

 of iron would be put into the holes in the bricks and there fastened 

 by means easily to be invented ; upon these pieces of iron the 

 boards might be laid all along the wall ; the boards might be 

 fastened down to the pieces of iron by holes made in the former 

 to admit a small cord to fasten the former to the latter, and thus 

 the whole would remain safe against the power of the winds until 

 the season arrived when the fruit would be out of danger. The 

 board might be placed rather in a sloping direction, in order to 

 prevent rains from pouring upon it and running down the wall. 

 When done with, these protecting materials might be safely laid 

 asidej until the next year : here is a method, at once little expen- 

 sive, little troublesome, and not at all annoying to the trees, and 

 perfectly effectual. As to the thinning of the fruit, greater care is^ 



