ORCHARDS. 133 



ment as to the proper quantity to be taken away. Persons 

 inexperienced in this business might suppose it an endless job 

 to go over the orchard for this purpose; but such should re- 

 collect that in many cases not more than one-fourth or one- 

 eighth of the trees will require such treatment; and, that the 

 work can be done in at least half the time required to go over 

 as many trees, picking the matured fruit for market or home 

 use. Thin all those fruits that are too numerous. By the 

 inosculation of the vessels of vegetables, when any parts of a 

 tree are destroyed, those in their vicinity become more vigor- 

 ous. On this account, when part of the fruit is taken away 

 as early as may be, the remaining part acquires more nutri- 

 ment. Add to this, that when the fruit is crowded, some of 

 it becomes precluded from the sun and air, and in consequence 

 does not perfectly ripen, and in some situations is likely to 

 become mouldy; for mould is a vegetable production, which, 

 like other fungi, does not require either much light or air, 

 as appears from the growth of some fungi in dark cellars, 

 and of common mushrooms beneath decayed beds of straw. 



The following extract from a good English author, although 

 a digression and not applicable in every respect to apple cul- 

 ture, is, nevertheless, valuable and worthy of insertion here. 



" Give additional moisture, manure and warmth during the 

 early part of the growth of fruit. By additional moisture the 

 fruit becomes larger; in hot houses, this may be eifected two 

 ways, one by watering the earth on which the vegetables grow, 

 and another by producing steam by watering the warm flues 

 or floors; which will afterwards, m the cooler hours, be again 

 condensed, and settle in the form of dew on the fruit and 

 kaves. 



"' By supplying vegetables as well as animals with an abund- 

 ancy of fluid, they are liable to increase in bulk, both because 

 of the external cuticle, which confines the growth of both of 

 them, becomes relaxed, as is seen in the hands of those women 

 who for many hours have been engaged in washing; and also 

 because the cutaneous absorbent vessels will thus imbibe more 

 fluid from the external surface ; and the cellular absorbents 



