172 On the Management of Peach Trees. 



and the improper formation of young wood in the first years 

 of its existence ; were this followed by a reciprocal action be- 

 tween the roots and the branches, whereby a sufficiency of 

 refined juices may be highly elaborated for the deposition of 

 cambium and the production of fruit, proper woody fibre 

 would be formed ; the trees would cease to grow luxuriantly, 

 and would remain in a fruit-bearing state. On examining a 

 considerable number of trees last summer, in ditferent parts 

 of the States of New York and New Jersey, growing in a 

 state of barren luxuriance, I found them exactly in condi- 

 tions to confirm the conclusions which I had come to, by in- 

 vestigations, and experiments performed on peach trees in 

 England, only with this difference, that the frost in the south 

 of England, is seldom so severe as it is in this part of the 

 States, which somewhat modifies the effect of a similar cause : 

 but, in severe winters, the effect, produced upon luxuriant 

 trees, is precisely similar to that exhibited in a considerable 

 number of trees in the garden in which I am now writing. 

 In the States above mentioned, as well as here, the trees were 

 fed chiefly by tap-roots, penetrating four or five feet into the 

 subsoil, and absorbing therefrom an exuberance of unassimi- 

 lable matter, which has never been acted upon by atmosphe- 

 ric influence, and unfit, when taken in excess, for the organiza- 

 tion of fruit-trees ; and, although there is a continual 

 absorption and assimilation going on between the roots and 

 leaves, yet it is of that crude, unrefined quality which is only 

 fit for, and finds an egress in, the production of young shoots. 

 Trees, in a young state, have the most luxuriant foliage, and 

 possess, at that time, the most powerful elaborative energies ; 

 yet it is well known that they will go on from year to year, 

 growing luxuriantly, flowering abundantly, and exhausting 

 the soil of its nutrient elements, without containing the small- 

 est portion of those highly refined juices which are essential 

 to the production and maturation of fruits. To produce large 

 crops of superior fruit, the finest harmony must be maintained 

 between the roots and the branches, or rather between the 

 spongioles and the leaves. The elaborative powers of the 

 one should be in due proportion to the extractive powers of 

 the other, and, by this condition alone, a state of fruitfulness 

 can be maintained. The fruit is also acted upon and nour- 



