dM 



THE BELLE ET BONNE APPLE. 



roots of the tree on placing it in the hole 

 prepared for it, except to the width of the 

 foot next the trunk, leaving the extremi- 

 ties of the roots, with the earth lying lightly 

 upon them. 



The pruning-knife, except for heading 

 hack an unthrifty tree, or pruning the peach, 

 as recommended in the "Fruits and Fruit 

 Trees of America," is, to my thinking, an 

 unqualified nuisance in the orchard and 

 garden. 



At the season when the young trees be- 

 gin to send out sprouts, or new limbs, watch 

 for a shoot which is taking a wrong direc- 

 tion, and when found, finch it off". Per- 

 severe in this course three or four years, 

 and afterwards let the limbs take their own 

 way, and they will not be likely " to get 

 into a snarl." Removing the tender twigs 

 does not leave a wound, nor check growth, 

 nor diminish the vitality of the organized 

 structure. 



The past season I transplanted sixty 

 forest trees, many of them twenty feet in 

 height, and a majority of them were of 

 those species which are extremely difficult 

 to transplant with success. I did not lose 

 a tree ; and I attribute their uniform pros- 

 perity to my taking off, when planting, 

 every alternate twig from every limb. 

 This does not deform the symmetry, while 

 it reduces the number of leaves to such an 

 extent, that the diminished quantity of root 

 can supply the organization with food suf- 

 ficient to maintain life and growth. If it 

 is the leaf that exhausts the newly re- 

 moved tree, the suggestion I introduce will 

 balance leaf and root without mutilating 

 large limbs, which, as sure as effect fol- 

 lows cause, will injure the vital energies 

 of the tree, and prevent its living out half 

 its days. 



C. Smith. 



Newport, N. Y., Nov. 20, 1843. 



NOTES ON THE BELLE ET BONNE APPLE. 



BY PROF. OLMSTED, NEW HAVEN, AND GEORGE OLMSTED, EAST HARTFORD, Ct. 



A. J. Downing, Esq. — Dear Sir: In the 

 month of May last, being on a visit to my 

 native place, on the east bank of Connecti- 

 cut river, opposite the city of Hartford, I 

 was much interested in viewing the fine 

 fruit orchards of my kinsman, George Olm- 

 sted, Esq., and in witnessing the happy 

 results of his methods of cultivation. My 

 attention was particularly arrested by his 

 beautiful collection of apple trees, in vari- 

 ous stages of growth, and, most of all, by 

 one of peculiar magnificence, called the 

 Belle et Bonne. The oldest and largest of 

 these, in my friend's collection, was a tree 

 ; about twenty-five years old, which, every 

 .other year, bears about thirty bushels of 



apples. Several of the younger trees, of 

 the same variety, are growing with re- 

 markable symmetry of form, and promise to 

 make splendid trees when they arrive at 

 maturity. 



But my admiration was particularly raised 

 at the sight of a still nobler specimen of the 

 same tree, to which Mr. Olmsted conducted 

 me, which was growing in a neighboring 

 garden belonging to Mr. A. Cowles. This 

 fine example of the Belle et Borme is dome- 

 shaped, its limbs trailing on the ground^ 

 and the whole figure one of great symmetry 

 and beauty. We found its entire circum- 

 ference, as we paced the ground around the 

 pendant limbs, to he about one hundred and 



