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26 TIIE GENESEE FAKJkLEE. 



iinrtintltural Jepnrtinmt 



CONDUCTED BY P. BAEET. 



DWAEF FRUIT TREES. 



A FEW years ago tliere Avas scarcely anything known about dwarf fruit trees in this 

 country, but of late they have attracted considerable attention and their -character ha-s 

 become somewhat understood ; but there are a multitude of persons who have very 

 faint and incorrect ideas on the subject, and therefore, although it may appear to the 

 better informed class of cultivators a very superfluous undertaking at this time of the 

 dav, we are compelled to oft'er a somewhat minute explanation in justice to many whose 

 claims we are bound to regard. 



A Dwarf Tree, then, is a tree which by a certain mode of propagation and culture is 

 reduced far below the natural dimensions ; for instance, an apple, which if budded or 

 grafted on a common apple stock will make a tree twenty, thirty, or forty feet high, 

 and as much in diameter, covering perhaps two or three hundred square feet of ground, 

 will, if budded or grafted on a Paradise stock, (which is a dwarf species of the apple, 

 attainino- only three or four feet in height,) never exceed four or five feet in height and 

 as much in diameter, occupying little more ground than a gooseberry bush. A Dwarf 

 Pear, is a pear tree formed by budding on a quince, or some other small species of the 

 pear family. Thus, a pear which if budded or grafted on a common pear seedling, will 

 attain thirty or forty feet in height with a corresponding diameter, when budded or 

 o-rafted on a quince or a thorn will not exceed twelve or fifteen feet, and may even be 

 reduced to three or four feet by working on a mesjjhilus, a cotoneaster, or some very 

 small growing species of the pear family, or "alliance." So it is with other fruits, and 

 the grand objects of dwarfing are — 



Ji'lrst — To obtain small trees, adapted to small gardens, enabling the proprietors 

 to enjoy a greater variety than they could otherwise. 



Second — To obtain trees that will correspond in appearance with the enclosure in 

 which they are planted. 



Third — To obtain trees that will bear early, for dwarfing begets precociousness ; and, 



Pourth — To obtain trees that are low, easy of access in all parts, easily protected 

 where protection is necessary, and not exposed to winds that would be likely to blow 

 off the fi-uit or otherwise injure them. 



These are the ordinary objects in view in dwarfing trees. But many suppose that a 

 dwarf tree must, as a matter of course, produce dwarf, or proportionably small fruit. 

 This is a great error, but one which the inexperienced very naturally fall into. Dwarf 

 trees, instead of producing small fruits, or those below the natural size of the variety, 

 very often produce them larger. In another place we have given an account of a won- 

 drous laro-e apple grown upon a dwarf tree. This specimen was at least one -third 

 larger than the average product of standard trees. We have had the past season Red 

 Jstracans on a three year old dwarf tree about two feet high, nearly twice the usual size 

 on standard trees, and a little standard four year old tree of Canada Reinette that pro- 

 duced four extraordinary specimens, the largest one measuring over fourteen inches in 

 circumference. Nothing in all our grounds in the way of fruits, excited so much wonder 

 as this, from the last of August until the 1st of November. The small size of the tree 

 and the prodigious size of the fruit induced many to doubt the reality, supposing that 

 some trick had been played, similar to the fastening of a gourd on an apple tree. As a 

 . general thing where a variety does succeed on the Paradise, the fruit will be larger than j r 



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