MANAGEMENT OF FRUIT TREES, he, 17M 



tKe house, open the front lights, or when there are no front 

 lights, slide down the top lights, and throw the water in it at 

 the front or top. When you begin this operation, if in the in«> 

 side, every light must be shut ; and if you throw the water in 

 at the front, you must keep only one light open, which shut 

 immediately when you have sufficiently watered that part of the 

 house opposite to it ; and, then opening another light, proceed 

 as before ; and so on, till the whole is properly watered. The 

 house must then be kept close shut till next morning ; this will 

 cause such an exhalation from the glass, tan, (if there are any 

 tan-beds in the house,) &c. that the plants will be covered all 

 over with the vapour; which will infallibly destroy the cocci ^ 

 aphides, and other insects ; but the watering must be repeated 

 every afternoon, during hot weather only. By this you will 

 also save a great deal of labour in watering ; but such plants as 

 require much watering should be watered before you begin to 

 sprinkle the house. Before morning the plants will have im- 

 billed all the moisture, and the paths will be perfectly dry. 



;i When I lived at the Botanic Gardens, Chelsea, I observed, 

 in hard winters, when we were obliged to keep strong fires in 

 the stoves night and day, that the plants which stood on shelves 

 in the dry stoves were so scorched up that the leaves used to 

 drop off, as from deciduous trees in autumn, which gave them 

 a very disagreeable appearance. This induced me to consider 

 what could be done to prevent it ; when the following method 

 occurred to me : About eight in the morning, when the sun 

 shone out, and there was the appearance of a fine day, I threw 

 in water till it covered the floor, which was of tile, from one to 

 two inches deep, and kept the house shut the whole of the day, 

 unless the thermometer rose to about eighty degrees^ which 

 seldom happens at that season of the year j in that case, I open- 

 ed the door to admit a little air. By the middle of the day, 

 the water was entirely exhaled, and the floor perfectly dry* 

 This 1 used to repeat two or three times a week, in sunny wea- 

 ther ; the plants in about a week's time began to throw out 

 their foliage, and in a fortnight or three weeks they were in 

 full leaf. This success induced me to take the same method 

 with the tan stoves and other houses in summer, when troubled 

 with insects ; and I had the satisfaction to find that it had the 

 desired efl'ect. 



Of the Acanis on Melons, 



As we are now treating of insects, although it may look 

 like a departure from my original plan, I hope that some in- 

 structions for destroying the red spider on melons will not be 

 unacceptable. 



