CULTUEE OP PBTJIT TEEES. PETJNING. 25 



CHAPTER V. 



CTJLTTJEE OP FEUIT TEEES. 



THE fruit of the wild stock and of our cultivated trees, 

 differing from each other as the aborigines of Australia 

 and the best-educated natives of London, are yet 

 scarcely more dissimilar than the produce of a tree 

 which is just grafted or budded and then left to chance, 

 and that of one kept in a high state of cultivation 

 by priming, training, manuring, and all tlfe attention 

 necessary to bring it into first-rate order in the flavour 

 and size of its fruit. It is as unfair to leave a fruit tree 

 to nature and expect good fruit from it, as to leave 

 a child uneducated and look for fine sentiments and 

 learning in the adult. 



Flavour in fruit is very dependent on a healthy 

 development of the leaves, which again depends on air 

 and light, as much as on the nourishment derived from 

 the earth, so that clear, pure air is favourable to the 

 production of good fruit, and there are few kinds which 

 will thrive in a smoke-laden atmosphere. 



Manuring is often necessary to keep up the stamina 

 of the trees, but it must be administered with caution, 

 or it may only produce a rampant growth of foliage 

 and wood instead of fruit. "When trees are planted the 

 earth should be made tolerably . rich with manure of a 

 good lasting kind, as already mentioned, and that after- 

 wards given must be so used as to encourage the roots 

 to keep near the surface of the ground. A little 

 mulching or spreading a layer of litter on the surface 

 round the tree (to be afterwards lightly forked in in 

 winter) may sometimes do good when the fruit is 

 swelling. 



The most important items of cultivation, after good 

 air and good soil, are pruning and training. 



