AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 193 



out being injured. For the mode of producing and treating 

 seedling fruits, see those heads, pages 194 and 204. 



There is a difference in the period of blossoming of different 

 varieties in the saine orchard, which is sometimes due to in- 

 herent natural diversity, but often, also, is the effect of climate, 

 the habit of the tree, formed in a warmer or colder latitude, 

 adhering to it. Sometimes the season's crop is lost by the 

 spring frost killing the too early blossoms of a southern tree, 

 and at others injury is avoided and a crop gained by the tardy 

 blossoming of a northern one. 



It is sometimes worth while to choose kinds that may be 

 "readily identified by the peculiar appearance of the young 

 branches, as the snow peach by its white shoots, the Napoleon 

 pear by its slate color, and the Dix by its slender willowy yel- 

 low ones, and the Bergamotte Suisse by its striped bark, with 

 which the stripes upon the fruit have a general correspond- 

 ence. It is, however, much more important to attend to the 

 mode of growth which distinguishes eath particular variety 

 you propose to plant, as whether its habit be erect or drooping ; 

 whether, like the peach, it throw out its branches at acute an-" 

 gles, with a weak joint, and is therefore liable to be split by 

 winds or broken down by its crop of fruit, or at obtuse angles, 

 or horizontally, as the Rhode Island greening and Graven- 

 stein among apples, and the hickory among forest trees, and is 

 therefore strong to bear both wind and fruit. Also, whether 

 it has a habit of forming a snug, well- shaped head, as the 

 Seckel or Lodge pears, from which the fruit may be gathered 

 easily, or long, straggling, or upright branches, which can not 

 be climbed, and can scarcely be reached by a ladder, and for 

 which the fruit-gatherer becomes necessary. 



BEARING QUALITIES. 



Certain kinds are better bearers than others under equally 

 favorable circumstances,, as among apples the Rhode Island 

 greening is superior in this respect to the Pound sweet or the 

 Vanderveer. .Certain other varieties always bear heavily, but 

 only in alternate years, as the Jersey sweeting and the com- 

 mon or Poughkeepsie russeting. In some trees the fruit spurs, 



I 



