WATER OR AIR ?
Several effects of the water system have, of course, been known for a long time. If a leaf, even of a tender plant, is gloved by frost in a tissue of ice, it suffers no harm whatever. This fact has been retested lately and seems to be indisputable. It fits in with a number of other experiences. Frost—as I lave often noticed locally—is much more deadly as a rule in dry valleys than in wet. We know—and of this some particular instances were.quoted here recently—that leaves are blackened not intrinsically by frost, but by drought : that is, the leaves lose their moisture when the sun shines and cannot regain it in time. In a neighbour's garden on the Icemen's Festival of this very May the early potatoes were completely saved from a very severe frost solely by timely use of the watering-can. In view of these and other facts, it is a likely prophecy that before long every potato grower will be ready in the few weeks when his plants are threatened to spray the rows with water, as later he will spray them with chemicals ; and he may find the water as valuable a specific as the copper. Whether water will also be found effective in the protection of blossom is a more doubtful issue.
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