75 



dew from falling on the fruit ; but moderate dew adds 

 to the flavour of it. As soon as the fruit is all off, 

 wash the trees with soapsuds, and if the wood is not 

 ripened, light fires to ripen it. 



The canvass screens, employed by Mr. Irving, are 

 made very neatly ; they are all joined together with a 

 wall-plate at top, and another at bottom, and the 

 rafters are mortised into them ; these rest on spikes 

 of wood driven into the border, and the sheets are 

 lashed to small beams at top and bottom. They are 

 twenty feet long, draw up with pulleys, and are 

 lashed together with small cord, which makes a hand- 

 some cover, almost as good as glass. {Caled, Hort. 

 Mem, iv. 446.) 



Mr. Irving' s remarks, although no doubt founded 

 on practice, contain a few points which may tend to 

 mislead, and we beg to qualify them with a few prac- 

 tical remarks. In the first place, we would suggest, in 

 the construction of flued walls, that the lower tier of 

 flue be placed as low as possible, in order to warm 

 the earth in contact with the roots. The utility of 

 bottom-heat is becoming every day more manifest, 

 and it is but a common-sense matter that the root be 

 made to keep pace with the branches. In the second 

 place, we would, if possible, dispense with the trellis. 

 It is well known that a trellis is a waster of heat, or, 

 in other words, by the author's own shewing, the use 

 of the trellis permits a greater amount of fire-heat. 



