On the Management of Peach Trees. 167 



that, as their trees flourished well and bore abundantly twen- 

 ty years ago, they ought to do the same now. They fancy, 

 that the reversion, or suspension of some one or other of the 

 natural laws has changed the whole system of things, and 

 what could they do 1 At all events, the gross luxuriance — the 

 unproductiveness — the canker, and premature decay of their 

 peach trees, were consequences and calamities, which they 

 could neither control nor avert. So they reflected, and so 

 they believed. Many people justify their inattention to the 

 laws which regulate this material world, by saying, these are 

 things unknown to human ken, and beyond the power of hu- 

 man penetration ; that vegetable physiology, and such like 

 subjects, are only fit for the amusement of scientific men, and 

 useless for all practical purposes, connected with' manual 

 labor. 



No system of reasoning could be more erroneous and ab- 

 surd. To the farmer and horticulturist — and especially 

 to the latter, no branch of science can be so serviceable, 

 so instructive, and so amusing. Though the operations of 

 planting and pruning are apparently simple, yet a knowledge 

 of the physiology of plants enables the operator to proceed 

 with systematic propriety. The principles and purposes of 

 the sap must be studied, as by its agency the tree is devel- 

 oped. The sap is acquired and influenced in difierent ways, 

 and by different methods and manipulations of the cultiva- 

 tor. h\ spring, the small spongelets, or feeding roots, absorb 

 fluids and gases from the soil, which are conveyed by capil- 

 lary attraction, or perhaps, more properly, by atmospheric 

 pressure, through the various ramifications of the stem and 

 branches; this sap, being thus extended over the diflerent 

 parts of the tree, mingles with the gaseous fluids absorbed by 

 the leaves, and, losing the parts which are useless for nutrition, 

 by evaporation, becomes highly elaborated for the deposition 

 of cambium and the formation of flower-buds. The superflu- 

 ous unelaborated sap which is not required for these pur^ 

 poses descends to the roots, strengthening the spongioles. 

 whereby they are enabled to extract more nourishment from 

 the soil, throughout the season ; and, as these two kinds of 

 saps mingle in the leaves, the descending sap, which has not 

 been deposited in like manner, mingles with that which is ab- 



