140 ORCHARDS. 



be assured, you will gather fruit there in a very few years. 

 Prune thoroughly for the first four or five years by thinning 

 out the heads of the trees, by cutting out all crowded and 

 crossing branches; shape to the form of a pyramid by pre- 

 serving a main leader, and cutting back all rambling side 

 branches. This may be performed at any time that you may 

 be passing, and w^ith no greater weapon than a pocket-knife 

 and by pinching with the forefinger and thumb. A little 

 judgment and experience will soon enable the fruit grower to 

 understand this performance. What kinds to cultivate is, per- 

 haps, the most puzzling question (even to the experienced 

 orchardist) in the whole matter, although there are hundreds 

 of kinds of apples of high reputation in certain locahties, de- 

 scribed and figured in the catalogues of nurserymen, and 

 recommended for general cultivation. It does not hold good 

 that any kind of apple that has succeeded in some particular 

 locality will suit at all the soil and climate of another; for 

 instance, experience teaches us that almost all northern apples 

 of high reputation — that is, those kinds that have had their 

 origin in the North — are comparatively worthless when culti- 

 vated as far south as Virginia. There are only a few kinds 

 of Summer and Fall apples from the North that have done 

 well with us. Their finest winter apples are not to be relied 

 upon at all as late keepers here. Their Winter apples become 

 Fall apples here, and their Fall apples become late Summer 

 apples, and their Summer apples ripen much earlier here than 

 there. The "Early Joe," from the State of New York, is a 

 Summer apple of superior excellence here. The "Mother" 

 apple, trom Massachusetts, is a delightful Fall fruit here, and 

 some of their Winter apples — such as " Northern Spy," " King 

 of Tompkin's City" — are fine Fall fruit here; and there are 

 some foreign varieties — for instance, "Red Astrachan," "Yel- 

 low Bellefleur," &c. — w^hich have proved to be very good here. 

 " Climate, soil, and situation exert a mighty influence, not 

 only over the apple alone, but every other species of fruit. 

 This is very apparent to any careful observer in any neigh- 

 borhood, even here in this fine fruit o-rowino: section of coun- 

 try. 'For instance, the "Albemarle Pippin," transplanted 



