On the Foliage of Peach and Nectarine Trees. 181 



had first seen ray trees at Downton, he had applied the wash to all 

 his peach and nectarine trees, except two, and that those two only 

 produced blistered leaves, and that he had subsequently washed 

 all his trees, and that no blistered leaves had appeared since in his 

 garden. 



The blossoms of my peach and nectarine trees have set exceed- 

 ingly well since my trees have been treated in the manner above 

 mentioned ; but whether this has been owing to any beneficial 

 operation of the wash upon the blossoms, or to the more perfect 

 maturity of the wood in consequence of the preservation of the 

 early leaves of the preceding season, I am wholly at a loss to con- 

 jecture. 



I applied the wash in the present season to my apricot trees ; 

 whether with any beneficial effects or not, I am, of course, unable 

 to decide ; but I have a very good crop of apricots, of which few 

 persons can, I believe, boast in the present season : it is much 

 better than I have had in much more apparently favourable 

 seasons. I place, however, but little confidence in the wash 

 relatively to its operation in this case, as I am wholly incapable of 

 conjecturing by what possible means it can operate beneficially. I 

 am, however, much too ignorant of the laws of vegetable life to 

 decide that it did not operate beneficially; and as the wash 

 banishes the red spider, the experiment appears to deserve repeti- 

 tion. I employed in covering my trees the same article, which I 

 have used during many years. It consists of the slender twigs of 

 the birch tree, which are attached to the wall, generally by being 

 pushed in under the branches of the wall tree, and made to hang 

 with their points downwards. These branches of the birch tree 

 are about a yard long, and so placed that their points stand out 

 about 18 inches from the wall ; and the quantity I employ is about 

 as great as to afford a cover equivalent to that given by a double 

 ordinary net. The young shoots of an elm tree, which has been 

 shreaded two years, will afford nearly as good a covering; and 



