THE FRUIT GARDEN. 



189 



But apples for the fruit garden, even on the Doucain, 

 should be such as naturally make small trees and are 

 inclined to early bearing. In these respects it is very 

 well known there is a wide difference between varieties. 

 Those mentioned above, and others similar in charactei-, 

 frequently bear, on free stocks in the nursery rows, at the 

 age of three or four years from the bud, whilst others do 

 not bear until eight or ten years old. This is a point that 

 should always be looked into in selecting garden trees, for 

 it is the natural and proper desire of every one who 

 plants a tree in the garden to obtain fruit from it as early 

 as possible. 



The Ajpple for Dwarfs. — The apple, worked on the 

 paradise, makes a beautiful little dwarf bush. We know 

 of nothing more interesting in the fruit garden than a row, 

 or a little square, of these miniature apple trees (fig. 100), 

 either in blossom or in 

 fruit. Those who have 

 not seen them, may 

 imagine an apple tree, 

 four feet high, and the 

 same in width, of 

 branches covered with 

 blossoms in the spring, 

 or loaded with magni- 

 ficent golden and crim- 

 son fruit in the autumn. 

 They begin to bear the 

 third year from the bud, 

 and the same variety is 

 always larger and finer 

 on them than on standards. '^Q,\i2i^ Red Astracans on 

 paradise the past season, that measm-ed eleven inches in 

 circumference. The French plant a square or compart- 

 ment of these in the kitchen or fruit garden, as they do 



Fig. 109. 

 Dwarf apple tree. 



