14 FRUIT BOOK. 



tumn, however, the drought ceased, copious rains 

 saturated the ground, and warm weather started 

 all trees into vigorous though late growth. At 

 this time, while we hoped for a long fall and a 

 late winter, on the contrary, we were surprised 

 by an early and sudden winter, and with unusual 

 severity at the very beginning. In this region 

 much corn was ruined, and more damage; apples 

 were also caught on the trees and spoiled. Caught 

 in this early winter, what was the condition of 

 fruit trees ? They were making rapid growth, the 

 wood unripe, the passages of ascent and descent 

 impleted with sap. In this condition the fluids 

 were suddenly frozen, the growth instantly 

 checked ; and the w r hole tree, from a state of great 

 excitability, was, by one shock, rudely forced into 

 a state of rest. At length the spring approaches. 

 In early pruning, the cultivator will find, in those 

 trees which will ere long develope blight, that 

 the knife is followed by an unctuous sap, and that 

 the liber is of a greenish yellow color. These 

 will be the first signs, and the practised eye may 

 detect them long before a leaf is put forth." 

 We have noticed, in our own experience, that 

 those trees which make the greatest growth in 

 summer, retaining their leaves late in the fall, 

 are always the most likely to be killed in the fol- 

 lowing winter. Our opinion coincides with the 

 above sensible pomologist, when he says, "A 

 rich and dry soil would be likely to promote early 

 growth, and the tree would finish its work in 

 time ; but a rich and moist soil, by forcing the 

 growth, would prepare the tree for blight; so 

 that rich soils may prevent or prepare for the 

 blight, and the difference will be, the difference 



