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the ground, are not unfrequently destroyed, whilst those of the 
more elevated branches escape injury; and hence arises, I 
think, a probability that some advantages may be derived from 
protecting the stems or larger branches of fruit trees, as far as 
practicable, from frost in the spring; and the following facts 
appear strongly to support this conclusion. 
3Ir. 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 unpro- 
ductive. 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 possessor of it, with the inten- 
tion of promoting its growth and health, cut away the laurel 
branches which surrounded its stems, in the winter of 182.3-4, 
and in the succeeding season not a single fruit was produced. 
Never having known an instance of a standard nectarine tree 
bearing fruit iu a climate so unfavourable, or nearly so unfa- 
vourable, I was led to expect that the variety possessed an 
extraordinary degree of hardiness ; but having inserted some 
buds of it into bearing branches upon the walls of my garden, 
at Downton, in the summer of 1822, 1 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, 
1 planted some years ago in my garden, under a wall, in a 
north-east aspect, and shaded by a contiguous building, a 
common China rose tree (Rosa indica) and a plant of Irish ivy. 
Both have risen considerably above the top of the wall, which 
is thirteen feet high; and the rose tree, of which the stem is 
wholly covered by the branches and foliage of the ivy, has 
annually produced more abundant flowers, and exhibited 
symptoms of more luxuriant health, than any other flee of the 
same kind in my possession. The soil in which it grows is 
poor and unfavourable ; and I am unable to discover any cause, 
except the protection it receives, from which it has derived its 
luxuriant health and growth. 
