APRIL. 
Ill 
are put on, as described before in the Floris^, at four o’clock in the 
afternoon, and are taken off at ten o’clock in the morning (unless the 
day is wet, very windy, or sleety), thus allowing the walls to cool 
gradually and heat gradually, quick transition being most baleful. 
This is my mode of covering, and very successful has it been for some 
years. As regards Peaches, in 1858, we brought to table or gave away 
1024, off three trees in a foggy valley close to the rivulet; in 1859 we 
took 197, in 1860 we landed 755; thus taking in three years off three 
trees 1976 Peaches. 
The benefits of a sheet are at least threefold; it keeps the blossoms 
dry, prevents in some measure radiation, and also saves the foliage 
from curl. The foliage here is always as good as the crop. Now, go 
into the gardens of England, and I believe I may say into many 
glassed houses, and you will see that the foliage of Peach and Nectarine 
trees is a disgrace to science. This will lead me to say one word about 
curl. What is it? I believe it to be occasioned by some insect that 
inserts, by its forceps, an egg between the first and second cuticle of the 
leaf. In due time it is hatched and crawls betw^een the cuticles, 
disorganising the functions of the leaf, till it (the leaf), being resinously 
bloated, falls off. The sheet certainly stops its development and glass 
does not, neither do the Wheat straws prevent it. The only appreciable 
curl that I ever see here is just where the sheets do not meet, and also 
between the sheets and the tiles. I cannot account for this, and 
probably I may be wrong altogether about the theory of curl. 
Curl seems to be most developed during hot days and easterly winds, 
but as I often, during such weather, keep on the sheets all day, to 
prevent the walls from being overheated, previous to certain morning 
frosts, it may be that the sheets prevent the hatching of the egg till the 
cuticles are too hard for the insect to travel between them, or it may 
be that the sheets prevent the hatching altogether. Mr. Worthington, 
Mr. Hilyar, Mr. Leach (Lord Portman’s gardener) saw the fruit and 
the leaves, and greatly admired the latter as well as the former. 
Indeed, the greatest and best foliage here last summer were the Peach 
leaves. 
I should feel much obliged to any of the readers of the Florist who 
would kindly correct me if I am wrong about the origin of curl. The 
sheets last year were put on the 7th of March, and finally removed 
the 7th of May. I want to know what chance the Peach blossoms 
would have had, during two months of such weather as your readers 
will not easily forget, without the solid protection of the sheets. The 
following was the disfruiting of the three trees—May 17, 6488; 
June 11, 663 ; and some time in July, at the recommendation of Mr. 
Leach, I took off 538 more, leaving on 755. He said that the crop 
would otherwise be too much for the trees; there is, however, plenty 
of wood, though I fear the wood here and everywhere else will be found 
to be inferior to preceding years. I depend chiefly on fan fashion, but 
also grow the fruit on little spurs, which after cropping are removed. 
Rushton. W. F. Radclyfee. 
March 22.—The trees are now in bloom, and the blooms are suffi¬ 
cient all over the trees, but they are not so thick as last year. 
W. F. R. 
