MANAGEMENT OF FRUIT TREES, &c. 83 



from insects, and promotes the swelling of the fruit ; but this 

 operation must never be performed when the nights are cold 

 and frosty. You should begin to sprinkle the trees when the 

 sun is in an oblique direction, or gone olf the wall, which may be 

 about four o'clock on a South aspect ; by doing it at this time, 

 the leaves will have time to dry before night, and so prevent 

 the frost, if there should be any in the night, from injuring 

 them. In very hot and dry weather, give the trees a good bot- 

 tom watering once a week, which will forward the swelling of 

 the fruit. Vines require a great deal of watering ; but when 

 the fruit is fully swelled, you should leave it off ; particularly 

 when the nights begin to get cold, as it would hurt the flavour 

 of the fruit. 



We shall say something in this place respecting the pre- 

 servation of grapes from flies, wasps, and birds; but for more 

 full directions on that head, see the chapter ' On Insects, &c.' 



As soon as the large fly makes its appearance, you must 

 provide plenty of bottles a little more than half filled with some 

 sweet liquor to entice the flies to enter them, where they will 

 be drowned. You must hang the bottles on the nails at proper 

 distances all over the vines, and also place some of them at the 

 bottom of the walls. The blue fly comes much earlier than 

 the wasp, and you will find it no less destructive to the fruit. 

 It will therefore be necessary to hang up the bottles betimes, 

 in order to destroy as many of them as possible before the 

 wasp makes its appearance, and have the bottles ready for this 

 second enemy. 



When the grapes begin to ripen, you will be troubled with 

 other enemies; the birds will now begin to attack the fruit; 

 it will then be necessary to bag some of your fine handsome 

 bunches, but to bag them all would be an endless job, if you 

 have a full crop and a large garden. I have had five men bag- 

 ging for three weeks, and yet could not bag the half of what 

 were on one wall. 



Where the bunches are very thick, the quickest way is to 

 cover the trees with nets, or buntine (a kind of stuff" of which 

 ships' colours are made), which will admit a free air to the 

 grapes, and will dry soon after rain. They will also be a good 

 covering for the trees in the spring, in cold, wet, or snowy 

 weather. Always observe, that the bunches of grapes should 

 be kept under the shade of the leaves till they begin to ripen ; 

 then you may begin to pick off" the leaves which cover the fruit, 

 (ieavmg those a little above it to be a shelter from the wet and 

 frost in the nights ; this will assist the ripening of the fruit ; and 

 take off only a few leaves at a time, according to the quantity 



