FRUIT BOOK. 



or brown loam, it can only be furnished within a 

 certain depth from the surface, or within the influ- 

 ence of the sun and air. Large roots, running deep 

 and spreading wide, may be necessary to produce 

 large timber trees, but not fruit trees, for these are 

 more prolific when their roots are much divided or 

 fibrous, and kept near the surface of the soil. 



The following remarks upon the theory of the 

 motion of the sap in trees is from the pen of one of 

 our best writers upon horticulture : u The first 

 motion of the sap in the spring takes place in the 

 branches, and lastly in the roots ; the buds, in con- 

 sequence of the increasing temperature of the air, 

 first swell and attract the sap in their vicinity : 

 this fluid, having lain dormant, or nearly so through- 

 out the preceding winter, becomes gradually ex- 

 panded by the influence of the solar rays, and 

 supplies the buds with nourishment from the parts 

 immediately below them ; the vessels which yield 

 this supply becoming, in consequence, exhausted, 

 are quickly filled with fluid from the parts below 

 them, and in this manner the motion continues until 

 it reaches the roots, the grand reservoir of the sap, 

 by which time the solar heat having penetrated the 

 soil, the roots begin to feel its enlivened influence. 

 The whole body of sap then begins to move up- 

 wards, and as soon as the quantity propelled is more 

 than sufficient to distend all the vessels in the stem 

 and the branches, the buds begin to elongate and 

 unfold. From this time, the fluid becoming more 

 expanded every hour, its ascent is simultaneously 



