CROPS AND PROFITS 



close watchfulness, the attacks of this insect 

 may be prevented. Next, comes a curious, 

 foul twisting of the leaves, due — may be — to 

 some minute family of aphides ; but this can be 

 mitigated by judicious pruning; after these 

 escapes, and when your mouth is water- 

 ing in view of a luscious harvest, there 

 appear symptoms of a new disease; the leaves 

 cease to expand; the fruit takes on a prema- 

 ture bloom, and a multitude of little shoots 

 start here and there from the bark, being 

 weakly attempts to struggle against the con- 

 suming "yellows." And if all these difficul- 

 ties be fairly escaped or overcome, there re- 

 mains the damaging fact, that in two winters 

 out of five, in many New England exposures, 

 the extreme cold will utterly destroy the germ 

 of the fruit buds. 



Notwithstanding these drawbacks, however, 

 I continue to put out from year to year, a few 

 young trees; not making regular plantations, 

 but dotting them about, in shrubberies, and in 

 unoccupied garden corners, grouping them in 

 the lee of old walls — in the poultry yard, — 

 upon the north side of buildings, — in every 

 variety of position and of soil. In this way 

 I contrive— except the January temperature 

 shows ten below zero — to secure a fair table 



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