256 The Principles of Fruit-growing 



ing of early-blooming woody plants if the tops are left 

 exposed. Plants store up starchy matters in their bulbs 

 or branches, to be used in the growth of the adjacent parts 

 in early spring. The earliest bloom of spring is supported 

 by this store of nutriment, rather than by food freshly 

 appropriated from the earth. This is well illustrated by 

 placing well-matured twigs of apple or willow (or other 

 early-flowering plants) in vases of water in winter, when 

 the buds will burst and flowers will often appear. On the 

 15th of one February, a branch of a nectarine tree that 

 stood alongside a horticultural laboratory was drawn into 

 the office through a window. This office was maintained 

 at the temperature of a living-room. On the 6th of April 

 the buds began to swell, and the young leaves had reached 

 a length of % mcn a week later. The leaves finally attained 

 their full size on this branch before the buds on the remain- 

 ing or outdoor part of the plant had begun to swell. This 

 experiment must impress upon the reader the fact that 

 much of the bursting vegetation of springtime is supported 

 by a local store of nutriment, and is more or less indepen- 

 dent of root-action. If the ground could be kept frozen 

 for a sufficiently long period after vegetation begins, the 

 plant would consume its supply of stored food, and might 

 then be checked from inactivity of the root, but this would 

 evidently be at the expense of injury to the plant; but, 

 in practice, it is fortunately impossible to hold the frost 

 in the soil so long. It is evident, too, that the covering 

 of strawberries and other low plants for the purpose of 

 retarding fruit must be practised with caution, for a mulch 

 of sufficient depth measurably to delay vegetation is 

 likely to bleach and injure the young growth, and to lessen 

 the crop. Yet it can sometimes be used to good effect, 

 and fruiting can be delayed a week, perhaps even more. 



