PROTECTION OF WALL FRUIT-TREES. 
297 
be duly distributed, and the process of maturation proceed without 
impediment.” 
I am by no means shaken in my opinion, nor do I see any reason 
for doubting the manner in which a covering may serve as a protec¬ 
tor from the paralysing effects of frost, acting upon the organs of 
impregnation; but I have nevertheless been led to suspect the fact 
of any general benefit being, upon the whole, derived from a cover¬ 
ing of mats or nets. In plainer terms, I have witnessed certain re¬ 
sults, which lead me to conjecture that, in most cases, trees unpro¬ 
tected will set their fruit better, and will preserve their foliage in a 
more healthy condition than others which are carefully covered du¬ 
ring the whole blossoming season, by intermedia which extend from 
the toj) of the wall to the very surface of the soil. These facts I shall 
now state, and I earnestly solicit the attention and kindly remarks 
of your experienced practical readers. 
In the spring of the year 1830, I caused two fine peach-trees, on 
a low wall, facing south-east, to be covered entirely with woollen 
nets; but not so as to suffer anj twig or blossom of the trees to touch 
any part of the nets, unless it might be just at the extreme tops. 
The nets were fastened against the coping, and brought down at 
an angle of about sixty degrees. No frost (though the spring was 
very ungenial,) appeared to reach or affect the young foliage or 
the bloom; yet, I believe, not half a dozen of the peaches set upon 
the two trees. The sun’s rays and the air passed freely, and the 
nets were never removed. When I came to my present property, I 
was applied to by an immediate neighbour, and lent him a large net. 
My son fixed it to the wall in the way above described: it was 
retained during the whole blossoming period, but not one fruit set 
under the net, whereas, upon two or three branches which extended 
beyond it, there was fruit. The same gentleman had string nets 
placed before several of his trees during the present spring, not, 
however, at an angle with, but perpendicularly to the wall; and 
therefore in close contact with the breast-wood of the trees. Two 
evenings since, he requested me to inspect them, when I observed no 
fruit, but found that much injury had been produced by some means. 
Several large branches of the peaches, nectarines, and apricots, had 
been all but killed; the leaves were dried up, and I suspect that 
many will not recover. Other trees that had not been netted ap¬ 
peared in a far more healthy condition, though none carried much 
fruit. The nights throughout April have been extremely severe ; 
and hoar-frost occurred, I think, above twenty times during that and 
the preceding month. The trees, moreover, had been suffered to re- 
