198 THE APPLE CULTUBI8T. 



unwarrantably, ever recovered from the fatal injury of 

 such stupid pruning. Is it any wonder that fruit-trees 

 fail to bear, when treated thus ? Is it not rather a won- 

 der that varieties maintain their identity as well as they 

 have done ? 



Worthless Trees. In addition to the foregoing causes of 

 failure, there are other causes of serious failure in the pro- 

 duction of apples, which a beginner must understand be- 

 fore he can calculate on success. With nurserymen who 

 have trees to sell, and who have no further anxiety than 

 simply to produce trees which will command a high price, 

 a tree that will never produce a satisfactory crop of fruit 

 is just as good as one that will yield annually a bountiful 

 crop. There are untold numbers of worthless apple-trees 

 sold every season, which will never yield one-fourth the 

 amount of a fair crop ; and yet, to all external appearances, 

 they were, when transplanted, smooth, thrifty, and superior 

 trees. If a tree has not been produced properly, it can 

 never be expected to yield a satisfactory crop of fruit ; and, 

 when apple-trees that have been produced as such trees 

 should be grown, are not managed correctly, they will not* 

 yield a supply of fruit. The nursery business has been en- 

 gaged in by such a large number of persons, who are ut- 

 terly ignorant of the fundamental requirements in order to 

 produce bearing trees, that our country is overstocked with 

 worthless fruit-trees, which appear all right ; but which, 

 with superior management, will never yield a satisfactory 

 crop of fruit. Every intelligent, practical pomologist, if 

 he has exercised himself to observe what influences affect 

 growing fruit-trees, both favorably and injuriously, knows 

 that an apple-tree which has been produced by setting a 

 cion in a piece of the root of a young tree that has sprung 

 from the half-ripe seed of a miserable apple, can never be 

 made to yield satisfactory crops of fruit. 



