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THE FLORIST. 
PROTECTION OP WALL FRUIT TREES. 
This subject is one on which there seems to be very little settled 
opinion ; all the experience, therefore, that can be brought to bear on it 
is the more necessary to put it upon a firmer and sounder basis, so that 
the uninitiated may not have to grope his way amid so many conflicting 
opinions, and lose ten or a dozen crops of fruit before he hits upon the 
right plan. For my own part I advocate giving little or no protection to 
Peaches and Nectarines. Perhaps there are not any kinds of fruit that 
require more light and air than these do to get them strong and well. 
If protection be used at all, it should, therefore, be of the lightest 
material that can be had. The plan I mean to adopt in the future, as 
far as practicable, is to have boards about 12 or 14 feet long and 1 foot 
wide, fixed at the top of the wall to form a coping, and other boards of 
the height of the wall, placed perpendicularly, with their edges to the 
wall, the same width as the coping at top, and tapering down to about 
18 or 20 inches at bottom ; upon these boards I shall stretch coarse 
netting. By this plan the upright boards will break all side cutting 
winds, and those forming the coping will throw off rain, snow, and 
hail, while the net will be quite sufficient to protect the bloom from frost, 
&c. Nothing, in my opinion, will answer the purpose of protecting 
wall fruit-trees so well as what I suggest. The protection I used this 
season consisted of small sprays of Beech wood with dead foliage 
adhering; but this, though put on thinly, shaded the bloom too much 
in places, which consequently dropped off. Nor is this the only 
objection to its use ; it is a harbour for all kinds of insects that prey 
upon the Peach: when I took the protecting material from the trees, 
they were as full of spider and green-fiy as they could be. Two or 
three of the trees which I left unprotected, by way of experiment, set 
their fruit better and were freer from insects than those which were 
protected. It may, I think, fairly be concluded from these facts, that 
the lightest material is the best for protecting wall fruit-trees while in 
bloom. 
Rayners Penn, Bucks. J. F. M. 
CHASSELAS MUSQUE GRAPE. 
At the meeting of the new Fruit Committee of the Horticultural 
Society in Regent-street, the other day, a dish of this Grape was 
exhibited, with some remarks on the way in which it may be grown 
without cracking, which entirely spoils this otherwise valuable Grape. 
The bunches were sent by Mr. Tillery, of Welbeck, who states that on 
a dry light border it ripens perfectly without cracking. The specimens 
sent were not large, but perfect in bunch and berry, and had the deep 
amber colour peculiar to this variety when in good condition. This 
Grape having long been a favourite with me, I am glad to find that 
so high an authority as Mr. Tillery thinks it worth growing. It will, 
however, require not only a dry border but a dry atmosphere as well; 
