THE 
\ 
HORTICULTURAL REGISTER, 
November 1st, 1834. 
HORTICULTURE.— Article I. 
A MODE OF CULTIVATING AND PROTECTING FRUIT-TREES. 
BY MR. JAMES EATON, 
Gardener to the Earl of llchester, Melbury, Dorsetshire. 
I beg to state to you my method of protecting and preserving the 
fruit-trees under my care, if you think it worth notice. It will give 
me no small degree of pleasure to be in any way useful to the read¬ 
ers of the Horticultural Register. 
In the year 1808, I finished making a new garden for the Earl of 
llchester, at Melbury, in the county of Dorset. The borders were 
all composed of fresh maiden loam, three feet deep, and twelve feet 
wide, well drained, and paved at the bottom. In these borders, I 
planted a number of Peach and Nectarine trees, which I suspected 
would do well. The first two or three years after planting they did 
middling, after which they began to canker, and become naked at 
the bottom ; I then planted most of the borders again with trees 
brought from different soils; these did no better, and in a few years 
all required planting again. I changed the soil, and tried every me¬ 
thod I could think of, hut with no better success. At last I thought 
it must be cold that checked the rise of the sap in the spring; and I 
have since adopted, with success, the following method:—I have all 
my Peach and Nectarine trees covered every night, from the first year 
they are planted, commencing as soon as the buds begin to open, and 
continue the same until the middle or end of May. This I do bv 
means of a mat, whilst the trees are small, and round the body of each 
tree I stick small boughs of evergreens, as Portugal laurels, &c. 
which I allow to stand until all apprehension of cold is over. 
About the beginning of February, I have every part of the trees 
unnailed, and well washed with a paint brush, in every part, with the 
following composition; soot, quick-lime, scotch snuff, and sulphur 
VOL. III. NO. 41. I i 
