230 On Protecting the Stems of Fruit Trees from Frost. 



bility that some advantages may be derived from protecting 

 the stems, or larger branches, of Fruit Trees, as far as practi- 

 cable, from frost in the spring ; and the following facts appear 

 strongly to support this conclusion. 



Mr. Williams of Pitmaston pointed out to me, two or 

 three years ago, an Apple tree, which, having had its stem 

 and part of its larger branches covered by evergreen trees, 

 had borne a succession of crops of fruit ; whilst other trees, 

 of the same variety, and growing contiguously in the same 

 soil, but without having had their stems protected, had been 

 wholly unproductive. I subsequently saw in the garden of 

 another of my friends, Mr. Arkwright of Hampton Court, 

 in Herefordshire, a Nectarine tree, which having sprung up 

 from a seed accidentally in a plantation of Laurels, had borne, 

 as a standard tree, three successive crops of fruit. The pos- 

 sessor of it, with the intention of promoting its growth and 

 health, cut away the Laurel branches, which surrounded its 

 stems, in the winter of 1823-4, and in the succeeding season 

 not a single fruit was produced. Never having known an 

 instance of a standard Nectarine tree bearing fruit in a 

 climate so unfavourable, or nearly so unfavourable, I was 

 led to expect that the variety possessed an extraordinary de- 

 gree of hardiness : but having inserted some buds of it into 

 bearing branches upon the walls of my garden at Downton 

 in the autumn of 1822, I have not had any reason to believe 

 that its blossoms are at all more patient of cold than those of 

 other seedling varieties of the Nectarine. 



I planted some years ago, in my garden, under a wall, in 

 a north-east aspect, and shaded by a contiguous building, a 

 Common Chinese Rose tree (Rosa Indica), and a plant of 



