NOTES ON SOU? HERN HORTICULTURE. 



The apricot thriven well on poach sto l.i, but our commor. or Chickasaw plum, is deci 

 dedly the best stock for it. I have about tvrenty young seedling apricots, from which I 

 expect to derive a good deal of pleasure; some are from seed grown on my own trees, and 

 I hope from these seedlings to obtain varieties that will do as well as I could wish. 



In speaking of the apricot, I have said much more than I should have done if it was a 

 tree in common cultivation, as the peach, &c. I do not pretend to know much about the 

 cultivation of it, but have been trjdng, and shall continue to try, until I do know some- 

 thing about it. I fully believe that apricots may be raised here in great perfection, and I 

 hojie that many will give a full and fair trial, who have never yet done so. 



The pear tree, unaided by art, is the most tardy of any of our fruit trees, in arriving 

 at a fruit-bearing state. At the north, when grown from seed, from seven to twelve years 

 is generally allowed for trees to commence bearing fruit; from grafts or buds, from five to 

 seven years would be about the proper time. Some varieties Avill bear much earlier than 

 others. I have some small trees which I think were two years old when I received them 

 from the north, and this is their third year's growth with me, and several of them fruited 

 this season. The above refers to pears on pear stocks. On quince stocks they may be 

 safely expected to begin to fruit the second or third j^ear from the graft or bud; their fruit- 

 bearing capacity annually increasing for quite a number of years. Pears bear their fruit 

 very much like the apple, on spurs or blossom-buds coming out from the old wood ; the 

 Duchess d'Angouleme, and a few other kinds, bear fruit on spurs, and also on the wood of 

 the previous year's groAvth. I have had as many as fifteen fine Duchess d'Angouleme 

 pears, on one limb of the previous year's growth, the tree on a quince stock. 



The fine kinds of cherries will begin to fruit in from three to five j^ears from the bud or 

 grafts. In our climate, from three to four years may be properly set down as the time or 

 age, when most varieties of the Duke, Bigarreau, and Heart cherries, will come into bear- 

 ing. The above named kinds of cherries bear their fruit exclusively on spurs coming out 

 from the old Avood. 



All fruit trees, provided they are well attended to, will come into a fruit-bearing state 

 fully, from one to three years sooner here, in our warm climate, than they M'ill in any of 

 the northern states. 



Pruni2s^g Fruit Trees — There are but few kinds of fruit trees that require much prun- 

 ing, farther than to keep the heads of the trees in proper shape. Peach trees should be 

 shortencd-in every winter. This consists in taking off from one-third to one-half of the 

 current year's growth of the surface limbs, as well as all such of the inside limbs as need 

 to be shortened. 



This shortcning-in, or surface pruning, very greatly promotes the vigor and productive- 

 ness of the peach tree, suppljing it annually, with plenty of young fruit-bearing wood in 

 the interior of the head, which never can be the case M'hen trees are permitted to grow in 

 their oM'n way. All dead and decaying branches, should be carefully taken away from 

 the heads of all fruit trees. In all cutting or pruning operations, great care should be 

 taken to cut the limb immediately above a bud, and in cutting peach trees, the cut should 

 always be made just above a leaf bud; if made above a fruit bud, the limb cannot elon- 

 gate from the fruit bud, and is compelled to die down to a leaf bud, which often happens to 

 be a foot or two. Where there are three buds together, the middle one is a leaf bud, with but 

 few exceptions; and M'here the fruit buds are single, they can readily be recognised by 

 plump, whitish appearance, Avhile the leaf buds are slim and pointed 

 arcely ever attempt to prune any of my fruit trees, except my peach trees, unle; 



