42 On a Successful Mode of treating Fruit Trees. 



season for its complete formation, and will yield fruit the 

 next ; and with judicious management, there will always be 

 an abundant succession. 



We now come to the second part of our subject, namely, 

 the means, by which the blossoms of the trees are preserved. 

 Without securing these, all the preceding speculation 

 would be idle. The point, which principally enters into this 

 consideration, is to counteract the effects of spring frosts ; 

 and the remedy, which Mr. Harrison employs, is watering 

 the blossoms, after they have been exposed to a cold and 

 severe night. By this, the injury, which the frost has 

 done to them, is removed, and the organization, which had 

 suffered, restored. The process has already been described, 

 in the Paper before quoted ; but it may, in a few words, be 

 repeated. When the blossoms appear to be affected by the 

 influence of a frosty night, cold water is thrown upon them, 

 by means of an engine, syringe, or the rose of a watering 

 pot ; and this seems to extract the frost, and to retrieve the 

 soundness of the blossom. The water, thus applied, probably 

 serves as a medium between the chilling cold, and a warmer 

 atmosphere, by which a transition from the one to the other 

 is effected, and the equilibrium, necessary for the preserva- 

 tion of the flower, gradually re-established. The frost having 

 violently acted upon its organization, if the opposite extreme 

 were at once substituted, an entire destruction of it would be 

 the consequence : but the cold water interposes between the 

 sudden warmth, which would be pernicious, and affords it 

 a slow and gentle passage, which enables the injured parts, 

 by degrees, to recover. That this is the proper ground, on 

 which to explain the matter, may be inferred from an 



