PROTECTING BLOOM. 



89 



any of the others. Previously to fixing it 

 up against the trees, it should be soaked for 

 twenty-four hours in soap suds and urine, 

 and then be dried previous to using. This 

 process ought always to be practised upon 

 any of the other sorts of branches described, 

 for it destroys the insects or their larvae which 

 may be deposited in them. 



A large coping, so as to project a foot 

 or eighteen inches over each side of the 

 wall, is thought by some persons to be a 

 very excellent preservative of bloom. I do 

 not consider this to be a good plan, par- 

 ticularly when they are fixed copings, for 

 they prevent the gentle dews from falling 

 upon the trees : and when they are tempo- 

 rary copings, they are expensive in the form- 

 ing and erecting, and after all they do not 

 fully answer the purpose; for they are only 

 a defence against the frost which falls in still 

 weather; but when there is a keen frosty 

 wind they are of very little service, and it 

 is then that they are most required. 



Others use screens of canvass or bunting, 

 which I think are also objectionable, and 

 more so when they are fixed covers for the 

 season, they then exclude a great proportion 

 of light and air which are so very essentially 

 necessary to the prosperity of the tree and 

 bloom, or young fruit. And when such 

 screens are moveable, (that is fixed by roll- 

 ers and other means in order to fold them 



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