272 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ December, 
scarcely any; or if we have the means of control, we fail to use them, believing 
that it matters not what amount of water the roots absorb during the resting 
season, provided we fight valiantly with spring frosts ? The golden rule—“ That 
the most suitable condition of the soil at the period of vegetable rest is that in 
which no more aqueous matter is contained than results from the capillary 
attraction of the earthly particles ” is despised ; the laws of nature are disre¬ 
garded, the roots being too often allowed to suffer from dryness duiing the sea¬ 
son of growth, while constantly saturated with wet during the season of rest, 
when there is neither foliage to appropriate nor sun-heat sufficient to dispel it. 
Every border so circumstanced is an enemy to the peach, perhaps more to be 
feared than any, or all others. The trees become gorged to excess, frost ensues, 
and lacerated bark, gum, and canker soon make their appearance. They become 
an easy prey to insects, unfruitfulness and general debility follow, and ultimately 
death, the secondary or lesser evil too often receiving credit for the result. If 
the roots of Muscat Vines require protection during winter, why should not 
those of the Peach also, seeing they are both natives of the same country. Not 
that I would advocate the protection of the whole width of a south border, as I 
believe the Peach-tree roots to be in a much more favourable position, when 
confined to a space within five feet of the wall—as may be easily verified by 
the use of bottom-heat thermometers placed outside and inside this line at any 
period of the year. 
This season’s experience has proved most fully that spring frosts, although 
fearfully destructive, are not nearly so permanently injurious as are wet borders 
during the resting season ; nor does frost exert such a baneful influence upon 
the blossoms of a tree whose roots are in a moderately dry border, as it does upon 
those of a tree whose roots are in a border that is saturated with wet. Neither 
do trees whose roots are in the former state, and when the protection has been 
continued till late in spring, have that tendency to commence growth so early as 
those do whose roots are in the opposite condition,—an advantage, in this climate, 
which cannot be too highly appreciated. 
The fruit-trees in this neighbourhood presented an appearance, in the spring 
of this year, which plainly indicated, long before growth commenced, what the 
result would be, even without the aid of the frosts which followed. If, then, 
this evil, which has been generally so long disregarded, can be so easily remedied, 
and a fair annual crop of fruit, not excepting the present season, thereby ensured, 
and that in a locality which is particularly wet and unfavourable, and subjected 
to the greatest extremes of temperature which are experienced in England, is it 
not worthy of a more extended trial, more particularly in damp situations, and 
in wet and retentive soils, before finally deciding that the orchard-house or that 
huge copings are the only means of obtaining a satisfactory result ? 
Not that I b}'- any means disparage the orchard house, or even wish to compare 
the advantages derived from simple root-protection with those which it affords ; 
but what I do mean is, that while we are exerting all our powers of thought to 
