50 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Arnii 26, 1856. 
painted brown and olive, stands before me, on four legs an inch 
and a half long ; then a space to hold a sliding in-and-out drawer, 
to catch the dust and ashes from the burned tobacco, or tobacco- 
paper, or the “ residue ” of any sweet herbs that might be burned 
for incense. Over the drawer is a circular body with a face in 
front like that of a barometer or eight-day clock, with seven 
openings for ventilation, which may be shut or opened by moving 
a hand one inch. On the back, opposite the face, is a square box 
containing the moving power, like clockwork. When this is 
wound up, just like winding up a clock, it sets four fanners in 
whirling motion, at the rate of so many revolutions in a minute. 
Over the face and fanners is a nest of open wirewerk for holding 
the tobacco ; and over that a perforated head to let out the smoke 
in sixty or more jets. Lids open the face to the fanners, the box 
to the clockwork, the grate to set the fire, or the spirits of wine, 
and to fill and regulate the nest; and there is a handle on each 
side to carry it about. The height of the whole instrument is 
about two feet, and the depth about six inches. When the nest 
is charged, the fire is lighted, and the fanners are set in motion. 
The fumigator may be left to do the rest, as it is a self-acting, or 
self-blowing bellows and burner in every sense of the word. 
I have only about two thousand Geraniums, and I am not 
much troubled by the fly: but I gave them one dose with the 
self-acting destroyer, and it was real fun to hear the fanners, to 
see the volume of smoke, and to watch the insects tumbling heels 
over head, and nobody near them or near the instrument the 
whole time. 
I have seen the very thing mentioned in the Scriptures, where 
two women arc grinding at the mill, at work in the High¬ 
lands. Two millstones, but not so thick or so wide as for a mill, 
are placed on a cloth, one over the other, and connected with 
a collar just as in a mill. The upper stone has holes near the 
side or circumference. One end of the grinding-staif goes into 
one of the holes; the other end is fastened to something above 
the stones and grinders. The two women sit opposite each other ; 
and each lias a bag of dried grain by her side. Each of them 
takes hold of the upright stick, and pulls it round and round. 
The upper millstone is in motion, and each woman supplies the 
hopper with handfuls of grain. There are “ two women grinding 
at the mill.” Now this new fumigator is as superior to the old 
methods of fumigating houses, except that by Brown's Revolver 
and Gidney’s Furnace, as are the steam mills of the present day 
to those which were worked by hand in the Highlands during my 
boyhood, and in the east eighteen hundred years ago. 
From my one trial, and still more from the settled opinions of 
several good gardeners and nurserymen whom I know personally, 
I have no hesitation whatever in recommending the new self- 
acting Fumigator to all who can afford to buy it. Any man of 
practice and average notions might see at once the use and supe¬ 
riority of such a thing as this. 1 value the gift very much; but 
I look to the spirit of the thing. I place this invention on the 
same footing of usefulness as the Waltqnian Case.— D. Beaton. 
NETTING NOT A PROTECTION FOR FRUIT- 
BLOSSOMS — ALOES A DESTROYER OF 
INSECT MARAUDERS. 
Any person that has an Apricot, Peach, or Nectarine tree, 
does not require to be told, that, in order to obtain a crop of fruit 
with any degree of certainty, the trees must be protected from 
spring frosts. But, from the protections which some persons 
adopt, it is questionable whether the trees derive any benefit. 
I am alluding to garden mats, fir branches, and, in fact, to 
any other material that cannot bo moved oil’ or on, according 
to the state of the weather. If these coverings are put on suf¬ 
ficient in thickness to ward off a sharp frost, they, to the same 
degree, prevent the exhilirating effects of the sun-light and heat 
from acting on the tender buds and blossoms ; consequently, 
these become weak, and forced into such a state, that four or five 
degrees of frost will do them more injury than eight or ten de¬ 
grees would, if they had been developed under an exposure to the 
full power of the sun. 
I once lived at a place in Surrey, where there was an Apricot- 
wall some ninety yards in length. In the spring, as snon ns 
the buds began to swell, they were covered with fir branches 
from one end to the other. Thus covered, they remained until 
the fruit had attained the size of small marbles ; and the weather 
seemed all that could be desired. The branches were then taken 
off; but a week had not elapsed before the Apricots nearly all 
dropped off, pierced by a cold cast wind. This is no solitary 
ease : I could enumerate many more. 
I do not for a moment dispute that there have been good 
crops of fruit obtained from trees that have been covered with 
fir branches ; but I must say that I consider it is more owing to 
good luck than to good management. If it is only necessary to 
keep the trees covered for a short time—such a spring as this, for 
instance—the trees will be little the worse, and ripen their fruit 
well. But, on the other hand, if it is necessary to keep the trees 
covered for weeks together, as it very often is, the consequences 
will be that weakening and tenderness which I have instanced 
in the Apricots. Metliinks I hear some readers say, “ It is all 
very well for you to condemn fir branches ; but you do not con¬ 
sider the expense of covering walls with strong canvass or calico.” 
Gentle readers, do not be penny-wise and pound-foolish. I have 
seen more fruit lost in one season, caused by injudicious covering, 
than would, if sold, have paid for covering the walls twice over, 
as well as the blacksmith for putting up the covering properly. 
By properly, I mean so that it might be drawn up, or let down 
at pleasure, or moved away altogether. 
A correspondent at page 401 of the last volume states, that 
“ on the same wall he selected three trees. One he covered with 
fir boughs, one with biiuting, and the third with netting, afld 
that was the only tree of the three that was well covered with 
fruit.” I think your correspondent’s friend has conic to rather 
a hasty conclusion in favour of netting. A person that covers a 
tree witli a single or double net to protect it from frost, may as 
well have a hat made of the same material, and call it waterproof. 
Or, to use a remark that a man of long experience in the culture 
of wall fruits made to me the other day, “ To cover a tree with 
a single net, to protect it from frost, is like a soldier in a field of 
battle getting behind bis ramrod to shield himself from the fire 
of the enemy’s artillery.” 
I will not enumerate the many instances which I have seen of 
the inefficiency of netting to protect trees from frost; suffice it 
to say, that I have seen a Peach wall above 100 vards long, one- 
half of which was covered with strong calico, one part with 
netting, and one part uncovered. The trees that were covered 
with calico withstood 14° of frost when in full flower, and scarcely 
a flower of them was injured; but on those that were covered 
with netting, and on those that were uncovered, scarcely a flower 
escaped. Those flowers that did escape were between the wall 
and the tree; and, after the nets had been taken off, the keenest 
eye could not detect which had been netted and which had been 
uncovered, so far as appearance and quantify of fruit went. 
I should like to know, in what do three folds of netting differ 
from fir branches ? They each intercept the radiant heat and 
light of the sun. I think “ A. E.’s ” friend, and the people at 
Knowsley, would be quite as successful with their trees if they 
would hang their nets in a dry garret, or storeroom, until the 
fruit commenced ripening, when they might be taken down, and 
hung over the trees. Then, and only then, will the fruit derive 
any benefit from fishing-nets. 
Whatever material we use, let us put it on in such a way that 
it. may be drawn up or let down with as much ease as a window- 
blind ; so that the wall may receive and absorb the heat of the 
sun through the day, and gradually part with it at night, for the 
benefit of the trees. 
The time is fast approaching when we shall have hosts of green 
fly, thrips, red spider, and other enemies to vegetation to con¬ 
tend with ; but 1 will not recommend you to adopt the Yankee’s 
effective mode of killing them, which is, first to catch them, 
then draw their teeth out, then read an account of the Indian 
mutiny to them, and they will die with fright. But. I want you 
to try our village shoemaker’s plan, which is, to mix half an ounce 
of bitter Aloes with a gallon of warm water, mid apply it to the 
infested plants by means of a fine syringe or watering-can, and, 
before half an hour elapses, you will have clean plants, lie told 
me that ho syringed his Rose trees and Cucumber plants with it 
last year, and it not only cleared the plants at the time, but there 
was notone on all the season after; and it docs not harm the 
foliage in the least. I hope 1 he readers of The Cottage Gau- 
deneu will try it, and report the result to the Editors.— James 
Reid, Sudbury, Derby. 
.[This suggestion of Aloes as a destroyer of the aphis and other 
insect marauders is every way deserving of a trial, and with a 
strong probability of success. If successful, it will be what Mr. 
Robson truly said, last week, would be a great boon to the Hop 
grower; for Aloes is a drug so cheap, that the Hop gardens of 
| all England might be washed with a solution of it for a very few 
