Fruit. 



THE FRUIT-GARDEN. 



GENERAL MANAGEMENT. 



"rj*RUIT-TREES are either grown as independ- 

 JP ent plants in an orchard, in which case the 

 tree is suffered very much to assume any height 

 or bulk that nature permits ; or they are trained 

 upon walls and espaliers, or constrained to grow 

 in pyramidal or other forms. In whatever manner 

 the tree is planted, or designed to grow, the 

 tendency of the main stem and branches of the 

 plant is upwards into the atmosphere, and of the 

 chief roots, downwards into the soil. In general, 

 the depth and spreading of the roots are propor- 

 tional to the height and spreading of the branches, 

 because the roots are the anchorage and food- 

 seekers of the plant, and require a depth and com- 

 pass of soil corresponding to the bulk of the tree 

 and its demands for nourishment. It is therefore 

 of the first importance not to stint fruit-trees of a 

 depth and breadth of good sound mould adapted 

 to their expected dimensions. Trees close to 

 walls should have a depth of soil from two to 

 two and a half feet. 



In planting fruit-trees, never put them deeper 

 into the soil than they have previously been, and 

 in dampish or retentive soils, it is better to keep 

 them three or four inches higher, mounding up 

 the soil around them to that height ; pits should 

 be made for them at least a foot beyond their 

 roots, when these are regularly spread out. To 

 facilitate the root pruning of wall and espalier as 

 well as dwarf standard trees, it is a good plan to 

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lay a paving-stone two or three feet wide, at about 

 1 8 inches deep, immediately under their stem ; 

 and after filling in the pits with a mixture of loam, 

 thoroughly rotted dung and leaf mould, the surface 

 should be covered as far as the roots extend with 

 two or three inches of dung, to exclude drought. 



Grafting Budding Inarching. 



Fruit-tree stocks are propagated by means of 

 seeds, cuttings, or layers, and desirable kinds 

 are afterwards inserted upon them by grafting, 

 budding, or inarching. 



Grafting, which is a practice of great antiquity, 

 may be stated in principle to be the union of two 

 individual plants in a growing state, through the 

 medium of the circulating juices. 



Gardeners assign various reasons for grafting : 

 i. The perpetuation of varieties of fruit, which 

 could not be insured by sowing seed ; 2. Increas- 

 ing, with considerable rapidity, the number of 

 trees of any desired sort ; 3. Accelerating the 

 fructification of trees which are tardy in producing 

 their fruit ; and 4. Changing the sorts of fruit of 

 an old tree, and renewing its productiveness ; for 

 when a tree becomes old, but has still healthy and 

 vigorous roots, and it is thought advisable to renew 

 or improve its fruitful qualities, it is cut off across 

 the lower part of the stem, and forms the stock on 

 which scions are ingrafted, which scions become 

 in time the fruit-bearing branches of the tree. 

 The wild apple-tree, which bears only crabs too 

 sour to be eaten, forms one of the best stocks on 



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