FRUIT GARDEN. 237 



thin the one as directed, and leave the other to it- 

 self. It will be found that the tree which has been 

 thinned will produce an equal or greater weight of 

 fruit, and this incomparably more beautiful and high- 

 er in flavour. The operation should be over by the 

 time the fruit is half grown ; for, if delayed till they 

 are nearly full grown! and beginning to swell off for 

 ripening, the mischief will be already done, both to 

 the tree and to the fruit which is retained." 



Of Manuring, and otherwise altering the condition 

 of the soil. We have said that apple-trees grow 

 well in a great variety of soils ; but it by no means 

 follows that they affect all soils alike. A substan- 

 tial loam, whose substratum is dry, is that in which 

 they thrive best ; and a circumstance which is not 

 discouraging to the agriculturist is, that, should he 

 not find such ready made to his hand, he can him- 

 self make it without much expense of time or 

 money. Its elements are cheap and abundant, 

 being sand, clay, and vegetable or animal matter in 

 a state of decomposition. Equal proportions of the 

 first and second of these, and a smaller quantity of 

 the third, will give a soil of great power and dura- 

 bility, requiring only occasional supplies of mould 

 to reinstate what of that may be taken from the 

 mass by successive croppings. This mould is it- 

 self created by a mixture of various substances, as 

 dung, ashes, leaves, weeds, lime, marl, &c., fre- 

 quently turned and thoroughly rotted, and to which, 

 in this condition, has been given the technical name 

 of compost. A biennial dressing of this, applied to 

 the whole surface, with an annual and careful cul- 

 ture of some esculent plant between the trees, will 

 bestow on the latter all the advantages that, in our 

 climate, can be given by labouring and manuring 

 the earth. 



Apple, like other fruit trees, have their enemies 

 and their diseases. All excesses of heat or cold, 

 wetness or dryness, are unfriendly to them ; some- 



