490 
CULTURE OF VINES IN ROTS. 
usual way. Although I have sufficient netting to cover the whole of 
the peach and nectarine trees, heecli branches have been exclusively 
used for that purpose for the last three years: and notwithstanding 
the prevalence and severity of the frost during the last spring, while 
the trees were in flower, nearly every blossom set. None of the wall 
fires were lighted, though the thermometer indicated four and 
even five degrees of frost. Having recommended beech branches, 
it may be proper to observe, that all vegetable substances retaining 
moisture, being more rapid conductors of either heat or cold, than 
such as are dry, it will scarcely be necessary to say, that laurel and 
spruce branches in a green state, are the worst protectors that can be 
applied. 
But in Horticulture, every thing beyond general principles must 
be left to the judgment of the practitioner, and practice and observa¬ 
tion will supply the rest. Indeed the same degree of frost which a 
tree will resist without injury in one situation will often completely 
destroy it in another, and even in the same situation we not unfre- 
quently i find that a plant will one season endure a degree of frost 
that will kill it the next. It is, therefore, obvious, that any direc¬ 
tions that can be given on this subject, must necessarily be of a very 
general nature. 
These unembellished facts are the result of practical observations, 
and as the subject has of course frequently occupied the thinking 
moments of many of my own profession, to them at least there will 
appear nothing strange in my recommending beech branches for the 
protection of wall-tree blossom, while in my turn I shall feel equally 
unmoved at others who may even be still more strenuous in their 
recommendation of woollen net. This will ever be the case while 
cause and effect continue to be governed by circumstances. 
ARTICLE III. 
ON THE CULTURE OF VINES IN POTS. 
BY MR. JOHN MEARNS, 
Gardener to His Grace the Duke of Portland, Welbeck, Notts. 
I am pleased to see so liberal a spirit evinced, in imparting to the 
world the results of attentive observation and long practice, in papers 
on the cultivation of grapes, in pots; by which means upon a very 
small scale, and at a trifling expense, a succession of fine fruit can be 
preserved nearly the year round. 
Any ol what are termed Dutch pits, with convenience to manage 
them on the inside, arc very suitable, and most economical for forcing 
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