340 Appendix. 



do not intend to discuss, for it very much depends upon the country, the Ifiy 

 of the land, and the natural preventions caused by other work and other plans. 

 I will here instance my own case. I was always of the theoretic opinion, that 

 an orchard would prosper best if set out in the fall. The land where my own 

 orchard is growing had all to be cleared, and as this was done in the fall, 

 winter and early spring, I found myself always confronted at the end of each 

 clearing season with the question, "Plant now, or wait till next fall, and lose 

 an entire season's growth?" As the result of these circumstances I have always 

 planted in the spring, and I know of no better young orchard in our country, 

 or one in which fewer trees have died. 



So leaving out of consideration the best season for planting, I came tn 

 the best way to plant. Every one, who knows anything about an orchard, 

 knows that the trees will grow better if they are planted early, if a generous 

 hole is dug for the roots, and if these stubs of roots are pruned nicely, leaving 

 no broken fragments attached when they are set in the ground. Neither is it 

 a question with me whether I shall have a "whole-roof grafted tree or a 

 "piece-root" graft, for I think one does about as well as another, if the 

 nurseryman has done his work well. Neither do I propose to go into the 

 merits of the Stringfellow or close-root-and-top-pruning, or into that of roots 

 as long as the nurseryman can leave us when he under-cuts his trees in fall, 

 though I favor the latter. I wish, however, to direct your attention to the 

 top of the tree, if the root system has ever been disturbed in transplanting. 

 As the trees ordinarily come to us from the nursery, the roots are cut off rather 

 short, v/hile the stock and branches are ordinarily left unpruned. That tree 

 should always be cut back in branches or in stem to match its deficient roots. 

 The reason for this is plain to any one who knows anything of the true meaning 

 of growth, and especially of the ofllce of the leaves. To make it plain, and 

 because many plants exist without any true aerial stem. I shall for the present 

 pass the stem, and speak directly of the leaves and their functions. 



The Leaf. — The leaf is a part of the plant beautifully adapted- to certain 

 ends. In most cases it is a horizontally expanded organ, with one side turned 

 towards the sunlight, in order to enable it to catch as much of this as possible. 

 To the naked eye it consists of a delicate frame-work, holding out to light 

 and air the green parenchyma or pulp that fills the intervals. 



The purpose of the frame-work is a double one, to hold out in a horizontal' 

 direction the pulp, and to conduct rapidly water with its contents, called crude 

 sap, to all parts of the pulp. If now we make a microscopical section of the 

 leaf, and view it with a moderate power, we see a more wonderful mechanism 

 for digesting and breathing than the human lungs and stomach, on account 

 of its simplicity We see first an impervious skin or epidermis covering both 

 sides of the leaf, save where little mouths, or "stomata," leave ways open 

 to the underlying tissues. These stomata are beautifully constructed so as to 

 shut up when the leaf is lacking in moisture, and to open when there is an 

 abundance. This controls transpiration, or loss of moisture, with exactness. 

 At the same time they allow when open full ingress to the air with its carbonic 

 acid gas — a most important thing. Right under each stoma is a small air 

 chamber, into which the air can pass readily. Then the cells of the green pulp, 

 called the "mesophyll," are arranged very loosely about these air chambers, 

 and thus enable the air, when admitted through the stomata, to circulate 

 freely amongst these cells of the pulp. If we look more carefully at one of 

 these pulp cells, we find it irregular in shape, but with a uniformity as to 

 work and contents. Each has a skin, each living protoplasm, each green color 

 bodies, or chloroplasts, and each a nucleus. These minute color bodies are 

 wonderful things and fill a wonderful position in the "world's workers,"- for 

 upon their action the plant depends for its own existence; upon its elaborated 

 materials depend all parasitic plants, such as mildews, rusts, scab and a host 

 of others ; upon it depend all saprophytic plants, such as mushrooms ; finally 

 upon it directly depend all animals, whether herbivorous or carnivorous, and 



