35 THE MODERN PEACH PRUNER. 



elastic and readily turned aside. Openings, how- 

 ever small, must increase the violence of the blast. 

 Plunging winds without outlet, as in the case of 

 small gardens enclosed by high walls, are ex- 

 tremely unfavourable. Imagine such a rush of 

 air for hours together, and directed against un- 

 sheltered trees, and this during a period of low 

 temperature, and then you will feel no surprise at 

 their being unproductive and diseased. 



Every advantage, then, must be taken of neigh- 

 bouring shelter in laying out a garden. On the 

 western coasts the general exposure of the whole 

 garden should be sheltered from the south-west 

 quarter. In the Channel Islands, exposed as they 

 are to the force of the Atlantic gales, this is care- 

 fully studied. Each year brings disasters to our 

 gardens, and we do not so much dread winds from 

 an eastern quarter as from a western. In the 

 eastern counties of England, however, all testi- 

 mony goes to prove how fearfully destructive to 

 the tender leaves and shoots of the Peach are the 

 cold evaporating effects of a continuous east wind. 

 Above all, let the amateur direct his attention to 

 securing this shelter without losing unnecessarily 

 one precious ray of sunshine in our cloudy regions: 

 therefore the protection must be somewhat distant 

 from the trees, and yet not too far. On very long' 

 walls temporary screens, placed across the borders 



