THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 30. 
| 494 
covering at night, when the plants are in bloom, equal 
, judgment is required during the day; if at all mild, 
though dull, it should he wholly drawn up; if mode- 
1 rately sunny, the same; but if a very bright sun comes 
with a keen, searching air, the difficulty is whether to 
remove it or not, the thick shade weakening the blooms, 
and preventing the due dispersion of the fertilising 
| farina of the stamens; while an unshaded sun, especially 
after a few shaded days, parches the buds and young 
| shoots, and though the effect is not quite so perceptible, 
exercises a similar influence to what the sun’s rays do 
on a cutting or a plant just beginning to push its roots. 
These, and similar considerations, and the time in- 
] volved, have led many of our best gardeners out of the 
! dangers of extra covering and no covering, to choose 
the least troublesome, and though not always the case, 
yet many instances are known in which the seemingly 
careless, trusting-in-chance men, were rewarded with 
1 better crops than their neighbours, who had attended 
to the whole routine of covering, not forgetting even 
the minutiae. It is no wonder, therefore, that all who 
can are raising up Orchard-houses, in which plants 
| have air, heat, light, and shade, easily regulated according 
J to their circumstances. Every one who has had to do 
j with early fruit of the stone kind knows,—such as in 
| the case of a Cherry-house,—that a slight shade in a 
hot sunny day, when the trees are in bloom, is one 
security for obtaining a good setting, and the same of 
Peaches; but, though very thin netting or bunting 
would be valuable for this purpose, a thick canvass 
applied for any length of time would make the remedy j 
as bad as the evil. 
When employing strong sheeting for fruit-walls, we ! 
have often wished, in such circumstances, for a thinner 
blind, not to obscure, but merely to blunt the force of, 
the sun’s rays; but where can we expect to get the 
come-at-ables for double covering, to be used in this 
manner as circumstances require? Or who is there, 
that with an eye to economy, not as respects one 
season, but for a period of a dozen or twenty years, 
would not enquire whether the money and the time 
spent upon covering might not get up a good Orchard- 
house at once ? 
It will at once be seen that the objections thus made 
to a thick, moveable covering apply with greater force 
to an opaque fixed protection of any kind, as the trees 
are apt to be kept too warm at one time, when we should 
like them to be cool, and too dark at another, when we 
should wish them to have light. Nevertheless, after 
many trials and experiments, we are of opinion that any 
modes, however simple, of retarding and protecting, are 
better than none; and that all things considered, when 
time and attention are given, and proper simple ma¬ 
chinery for quickly elevating and loweriug used, a 
stout canvass is the best, though it will prove a little ex¬ 
pensive ; as we are not aware that any article has yet 
been manufactured peculiarly for the purpose. We 
have witnessed several instances of fine crops, wffiere 
these screens were carefully used, and next to a com¬ 
plete failure when they were discontinued; but, as we 
mentioned at first, we have, also, seen failures with then- 
use, and great success, a short distance off, where no 
protection at all was given. 
Granting, then, that protection and retardation, com¬ 
bined, are advantages, the possibility of uniting the two, 
in any degree, by a fixed medium, which will alike keep 
out heat and cold, though in a limited degree allowing 
as much light and air as will prevent weakening the 
blossom, and not so much as to parch them in early I 
spring, and, withal, extremely cheap, must be desirable I 
for amateurs, who cannot give the attendance that a 
strong canvass would require, and also for gardeners, 
who either cannot give that attention, or who have some 
doubts of the propriety of using it. Such a material 
we have now had in use for several years. It is Not¬ 
tingham Thread Net, rather fine but tough ; the hexagon 
openings being about the eighth-of-an-inch, of course 
smaller one way, when there is a strain upon it. A 
new piece attracted one of our best gardeners the other 
day, and he pronounced it to be, all things considered, 
a most desirable article, as saving all bother, admitting 
enough of light, and keeping out a certain amount of 
cold. It was procured, by post-office order, from Messrs. 
Boden and Co., of Nottingham. They state that such 
coarse nets are made in pieces 158 inches and 198 inches 
wide. One of these narrowest pieces, with a supply of 
tape or list, top and bottom and ends, to fasten by, 
covers, comfortably, a wall about twelve feet in height, 
for fully forty-five yards in length, and the appearance 
is very neat. 
Of course, this would neither retard nor protect like 
canvass, but it will do a little in the way of both, and, 
therefore, be not without its use. One thing against it 
is, that it will not keep out rain, but the drops are 
broken and dispersed considerably before reaching the 
wall, especially if there is a wide coping, and the cover¬ 
ing is two or three feet from the wall at bottom. On 
the morning of the 20th of March, we had from lour to 
five degrees of frost, but it did not reach the wall, and 
from rain having fallen freely the day before, the ground 
was frozen hard outside the shade of the covering,—it 
had not gone beyond an inch inside, the ground there 
being quite soft. A few Peas bad been planted out two 
days before, protection being given with boughs,—some 
against the wall, some on the border; those on the 
border, though not injured, were stiff and flat upon the 
ground in the morning; those at the side of the wall 
were soft and erect. Be it also remembered, that on 
the day after their being planted out, we had only a few 
gleams of sunshine, aud, therefore, that the temperature 
maintained was not greatly owing to the heat of 
the wall. 
Such netting is not only valuable tlius for protecting 
blossom, but also for protecting, and saving, and retard¬ 
ing fruit, and for shading purposes. It will require a ] 
very fine-winged insect to find its way through it. 
Gooseberries of the Warrington kind were had the best j 
part of two months last year, after they were gone in I 
the open garden, from using this netting. The plants j 
were on a north border; the netting was fastened by I 
