TALK IN THE APPLE ORCHARD. 



sliire, may be found, under the title " Endosmose and Exosmose," a most interesting the- 

 ory of the circulation of sap, which I should be glad to see entire in the Horticulturist, at 

 some convenient season. It rests upon soma mysterious inherent tendency of gases and 

 of liquids of different densities to commingle, a tendency which neither the power of gra- 

 vitation, nor the intervention of any immhram, either animal or vegetable, if the cellular 

 tissue of plants and the thin diaphragms that lie at intervals across the sap vessels may 

 be so termed, can overcome. This tendenc}' is so strong as to force liquids through apiece 

 of bladder, as may readily be ascertained by expeiiment, in the manner pointed out by 

 Dr. Jackson. The same principle, of the transmission of gaseous matters though mem- 

 branes, has been applied to explain the chemical phenomena of respiration. Whether the 

 fact that the sap rises and flows from the stump, where there is no liquid above to entice 

 it upward, does not conflict somewhat with this theory, as applied to the circulation of 

 the sap, may deserve consideration. But whatever be the principle of the motion, this 

 "ujjward striving" of the sap occurs chiefly in spring. At least, at that season, it has a 

 power greater than at any other. And it seems to be generally conceded, that it has then 

 not only a peculiar impulse, but also a peculiar character or quality, and that the first 

 flow of the sap is designed to promote the growth of wood. If this be so, we should infer 

 that wounds made before the force of this peculiar sap is spent, that is to say, before the 

 growth of the wood, would heal more readily than those made afterwards. 



At page 49 of your Jan. No., under the title " Fruitfulness Promoted b}^ Late Pruning," 

 in an extract from a French publication, may be found what seems a rational theory about 

 pruning, which may be briefly stated thus. The growth which is made in early spring, 

 is induced entirely by the sap in the roots. By diminishing the top previous to the rising 

 of the sap, the remaining shoots receive the sap designed for the whole, and therefore 

 make a more vigorous growth. The fertilizing sap which induces fruitfulness, is not form- 

 ed until later, the leaves being the organs of its formation. By a late pruning so much 

 of the vitality of the tree is wasted, as has gone into the growth of the branches removed. 

 A late pruning promotes fruitfulness at the expense of the vigor of the tree, as it seems to 

 be generally conceded that anything that checks the growth of the wood, as root-pruning 

 and the like, tends to the formation of fruit buds, and the converse seems to be true, that 

 great fruitfulness, by whatever means induced, checks the growth of wood. 



That tha removal of part of the top in early spring, promotes the growth of the remain- 

 der, seems evident from the rapid growth of scions, even when set in full grown trees; and 

 probably no one will contend that the growth of wood is, in the same degree, increased 

 by pruning in summer. It is a common, and doubtless correct idea with our f;irmers, that 

 to kill bushes they should be cut in summer, and that if cut in winter or spring, the life 

 principle is still left active in the root, and they will spring up anew. I have tried the ex- 

 periment of heading-in young apple trees to promote their growth. I was aided in my 

 first trial, by a drove of cattle, which in the spring of 1847, broke into my orchard and 

 browsed off" nearly the entire tops of thirty fine trees, of which part had been grown there 

 one year, and part were set the previous autumn. Their mode of pruning was sufficient- 

 ly thorough, as they left most of their subjects no limb more than six inches long, but the 

 style of execution was barbarous in the extreme, many of the branches being split off", 

 and the rest, as Hamlet said of the speeches of the players, "mouthed most abomina- 

 bly." 



The artist Fuseli, used to say to his wife, when any extraordinary trial of temper oc- 

 curred to her, " My dear, why don't you swear a little, you don't know how it would 

 ease your mind!" People find relief in different modes. I thought it a favorable oppor- 



