GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF ORCHARDS. 163 



the letters, which will be of a light color. After the apple 

 is done growing, the paper may be removed, and the letters 

 or figures will remain as permanent as the color of the fruit. 

 Many a person would be delighted with the idea of sending 

 a large and beautiful apple to a respected friend or lover, 

 with his or her name in beautiful piano-relievo, formed on 

 the smooth surface of a ruby apple by Dame Nature's own 

 delicate touch, in shades and" tints of unrivalled beauty. 

 Another manner of recording a name and date is to simply 

 cut through the skin of an apple in the shape of the letters. 

 A name may also be made by punching the skin with a 

 bodkin in the form of letters. The wounds will heal so that 

 the scars will form the letters of the name intended. 



Preparation of Apple-trees for Winter. In some instan- 

 ces, when an apple tree is standing where every thing favors 

 a luxuriant growth, the branches will keep green until cold 

 weather and frost has destroyed the foliage. A strong, 

 perfect, and healthful animal will endure the rigors of our 

 Northern winters with far less injury than a poor, weak, and 

 half-grown beast. The same principle will be found to hold 

 good in the management of apple-trees. If their shoots 

 and buds are full and plump, and well supplied with health- 

 ful material contributed from clean, healthy leaves, the 

 chemical movements which attend growth will assist great- 

 ly in maintaining the tree against cold, by the heat which 

 is developed. In a thin, weakly tree, this force is wanting. 

 Hence the eminent importance of watching the growth of 

 young trees early in autumn, when the growth is rampant, 

 for the purpose of clipping the extremities of luxuriant 

 branches, to hasten the maturity of the new wood. Untold 

 numbers of valuable fruit-trees at the West and North-west 

 have been lost during cold weather, from no other cause 

 than the one here alluded to luxuriant growth in late 

 autumn. In many instances, trees have grown but little 



