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PROTECTION OF WALL FRUIT-TREES. 
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ARTICLE III. 
ON THE PROTECTION OF WALL FRUIT-TREES, BY NETS OR MATS. 
% the Author of the Domestic Gardeners ’ Manual. 
C. M. H. S. 
My motive for requesting the insertion of the following remarks is, 
to promote enquiry among the more observant and reflecting part of 
your readers, and to request those whose experience has enabled 
them to arrive at a knowledge of facts connected with the present 
subject, to state what the results of that experience may be. 
Mr. Charles Harrison, the author of the Treatise upon Fruit- 
trees, has strenuously recommended woollen nets, as a most efficient 
protector of the bloom of wall trees against the effects of spring frosts. 
I became a sincere convert to his opinions, and, just at the period 
when I was deeply engaged in writing an important part of the Gar¬ 
deners’ Manual, I caused several woollen nets to be made, with a 
view to prove the value of that species of covering upon my own 
peach-trees. My reflections then led me to the following conclusion, 
upon the manner in which security was effected by nets. Mr. 
Harrison stated, that “ this netting completely preserves the bloom, 
as the frieze which is upon it receives the hoar-frost, and as it dis¬ 
solves in the morning, a suitable portion of light and air is afforded 
to the trees; it also repels the force of winds, and is an effectual pro¬ 
tection.” In my section upon Heat, and in that part of it which 
refers to the phenomenon of Dew, 1 observed that “ the agency of” 
(electric) “induction” will discover the cause of the protection af¬ 
forded to vegetables and fruit-trees, by a covering placed above them. 
The stamens and pointals of blossoms are, in fact, so many pointed 
conductors of electricity, their office being to convey the fructifying 
juices destined to mature the seeds and fruit. In consequence of 
their form, they are equally liable to become dewed as grass is. If 
then, the air be frosty, the particles of water and the juices in 
their fine vessels become frozen, and ice being a bad conductor of 
electricity, the vital currents are arrested, and the delicate organs 
of fructification materially injured, or destroyed. But if an awning 
weather-boarding, or even a woollen-net be placed at some distance 
above the blossom, the point of contact will be transferred from the 
vital organs of the seed to the two surfaces of the covering, conse¬ 
quently the regular flow of the ascending current, even to the ex¬ 
treme point of the vessels, being secured, the juices of the flower will 
