86 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



A cultivator at Belmont, Middlesex County, the last season, 

 from two-fifths of an acre, raised and sold 2,115 boxes of straw- 

 berries, or at the rate of about 165 bushels per acre. The 

 estimated value of these was $1,300 per acre. Most of them 

 were Hovey's Seedling. 



The blackberry, the currant and other small fruits are culti- 

 vated largely for the market, and at great profit ; the former 

 has yielded two hundred bushels to the acre. 



Many other instances of success have come under our imme- 

 diate observation, but these must suffice. 



X. — Pruninsr. 



When we consider the profound philosophy involved in the 

 various systems of this art, we freely confess our inability 

 justly to represent our own impressions, or faithfully to report 

 those of others. We shall only mention a few general princi- 

 ples. It is a doctrine of physiology, applicable alike to animals 

 and plants, that the power of production depends upon vital 

 energy ; and this again, on sustenance. Hence a tree can 

 support only a given amount of perfect fruit. If from a 

 superabundance of fruit-spurs, or immature wood, there be a 

 deficiency of organizable matter to sustain inflorescence and 

 perfect fructification, the specimens will be either imperfectly 

 formed or will prematurely drop from the tree. Of this we 

 have many forcible illustrations where varieties bloom abun- 

 dantly without setting their fruit ; or which bear full crops only 

 in alternate years. The remedy for such an evil, provided the 

 soil is properly manured and other circumstances are propitious, 

 is judicious pruning. In such instances it is important to 

 remove a part of the fruit-spurs ; or, if there be a redundancy 

 of fruit, to thin it out by picking off the inferior specimens. 



Different species, and different varieties of the same species, 

 require different systems of pruning, in order to control their 

 propensities and develop their appropriate form. Hence a 

 thorough knowledge of the characteristics of each sort, and of 

 the general science of Pomology is requisite for judicious and 

 skilful pruning. 



The precept, " Train up a child in the way he should go, and 

 when he is old he will not depart from it," contains a principle 

 as applicable to vegetable physiology as to domestic economy. 



