CHAPTER X 
How to protect the Blossom of Fruit Trees against the Frost—Different 
Ways of securing them against Caterpillars. 
Unfortunate circumstances will sometimes happen, 
when all the precautions we can take, will not prevent the 
loss of our crops. There are, however certain expedients, by 
means of which it is nossible to correct some of the inclemencies 
of the weather. 
The Chevalier De Bininbery, Counsellor of State of Bo¬ 
hemia, having surrounded the trunks of several trees with 
straw ropes, one of the ends of which rested in vessels full of 
water, observed that the ropes, by acting as conductors of the 
cold, had preserved the blossom, one night that all the other 
trees in the neighbourhood had lost iheir’s through the in¬ 
tenseness of the frost; having afterwards repeated tins expe¬ 
riment several times, he assures us, that it never failed to suc¬ 
ceed. It is also a good practice for the protection of wall 
trees, to cover them, during the winter, with a small masked 
net. 
The depredations of insects, will often do trees very serious 
injuries. It is possible to prevent the mischief they would 
cause, by exposing them to the smoke of a smothered fire 
lighted to windward of the orchard. Some cultivators of re¬ 
putation maintain, that, by making use of this preservative, 
plentiful crops may be obtained, in years when the neighbour¬ 
hood experiences a total failure. 
The caterpillar devours plants ; the apple and pear trees, 
the gooseberry bush, the thorn, and indeed, almost all sorts of 
trees are a prey to its ravages. “ It multiplies to such a de¬ 
gree, (says M. De La Laure), that one may see two genera¬ 
tions pf it yearly, unless care is taken to destroy it. Every 
female lays from three to four hundred eggs, whence are 
hatched as many caterpillars, which multiply in the same 
progression^ 
