By Mr. John Dick. 



81 



and one half, or more, of a crop, especially of Peaches and 

 Nectarines, though ever so plentiful, is usually eaten up, or 

 so much damaged as to render it unfit for table. Few fruits 

 escape the ravages of insects, more or less, while the tender 

 and more delicate are totally destroyed. 



The Frame described by Mr. Dick answered perfectly in 

 the last summer in preserving ripening fruit from insects. It 

 was tried on a Red Magdalen Peach tree against a south wall, 

 where other Peach trees were also growing. Those that 

 were growing exposed upon other trees were much disfigured, 

 and many of them were entirely spoiled, while those under 

 the protecting frame were as clean and perfect as forced 

 Peaches under glass usually are, excepting that some were 

 a little marked near the stalk by earwigs, and those insects 

 which harbour in walls ; against these, the frame affords no 

 protection. To enable the fruit to arrive at its full flavour, 

 the screen should be withdrawn in the evening, to expose the 

 crop during the night, and for an hour or two in the morning, 

 when the insects are at rest ; but in clear and bright weather 

 this is not requisite. The weather being of this character 

 last summer, the fruit under the frame was seldom exposed, 

 and its flavour was in no degree inferior to that of Peaches 

 which were continually open to the full sun. Mr. Dick's 

 screen will also be serviceable in protecting the blossoms of 

 fruit-trees in the spring, though less expensive apparatus 

 answers equally well for that purpose. 



Horticultural Society's Garden, Chiswick, 

 November 20, 1826. 



VOL. VII. 



M 



