OP FRUIT TREES. 21 



good kinds improve in character, becoming thicker, 

 rounder, and more downy every season. The plants 

 whose buds in the annual wood are full and promi- 

 nent, are usually more productive than those whose 

 buds are small and shrunk into the bark. But their 

 future character, as remarked by Mr. K. must de- 

 pend very much on the power the blossoms possess 

 of bearing cold ; and this power is observed to vary 

 in the different varieties, and can only be ascertain- 

 ed by experience. Those which produce their 

 leaves and blossoms early are preferable, because, 

 although more exposed to injury by frosts, they are 

 less liable to the attacks of caterpillars. It is also to 

 be observed, that even after a seedling tree has be- 

 gun to produce fruit, the quality of this has a ten- 

 dency to improve as the tree itself becomes strong- 

 er and approaches maturity ; so that if a fruit pos- 

 sess any promising qualities at first, great improve- 

 ment may be expected in succeeding years. 



A precaution is suggested, by the honourable T. 

 Pickering, that apple trees, bearing bad or ordinary 

 fruit, should not be suffered to grow with those 

 which bear fruit of a superiour quality. It is a fact, 

 with which gardeners are familiar, that the blossoms 

 of cucumbers will greatly injure the flavour of me- 

 lons that grow near them ; and it is reasonable to 

 suppose that fruits, while forming on the trees, are 

 liable in like manner to suffer deterioration. The 

 result of the following experiment would seem to 

 strengthen the above conjecture. The experiment, 

 it is said, has in numerous instances succeeded, with- 

 out a single failure. In an orchard, containing a great 

 variety of apple trees, bearing sweet, and some 

 very acrid fruit, and others partaking of both these 

 properties, in the vernal season, when the trees 

 are in full blossom, the pollen (or impregnating 

 dust) was taken from one tree, (for example, where 

 the fruit is very sweet,) and deposited on the flow- 

 ers of a particular branch of another tree, whose 



