ORCHARDS. 



slight curve; an opinion requiring perhaps a little explanation. 

 All straight branches produce what are usually termed gour- 

 mands, or gluttons, giving little if any fruit themselves, and ex- 

 ceedingly exhausting to the tree. Curved branches on the other 

 hand, rarely produce gourmand*; and when the season is fa- 

 vourable, give much fruit. The observation of these facts, made 

 long since, and probably growing out of the management of 

 espaliers, first suggested the practice of bending straight 

 branches by artificial means. The effect entirely justified the 

 theory: these straight and barren branches, bent into nearly 

 half a circle, changed their character with their shape, and be- 

 came very productive. But there is a time for this, as for all 

 other things, and unless the experiment be begun about the first 

 of July, and continued to September, it will fail; because it is 

 only within that period that fruit buds are formed. 



As your trees advance in age they will require pruning. 

 Suckers must be removed, and dead and dying limbs taken off. 

 For this purpose a hand-saw, a chisel, a mallet, and a gardener's 

 knife are the instruments to be used; all others must be pro- 

 scribed, and particularly the axe, which, in the hands' of folly 

 and ignorance, has been so mischievous to fruit trees. Wounds, 

 if large, should always be covered from drying winds, from 

 moisture, and even from air. In gummy trees, as the peach 

 or the cherry, this precaution is indispensable, and the neglect 

 of it a disgrace, since the best covering is that composed by 

 cow dung and clay materials costing nothing and always at 

 hand. 



On this subject one other rule may be given, and that is to 

 open the ground about the roots of the trees in the fall, to the 

 influences of the air, rain, and frost. The last of these besides 

 promoting vegetation, destroys many insects in the chrysalis 

 state, which, if left undisturbed, would in the spring be very 

 injurious. Another part of the same rule is to cover with 

 straw in the spring the ground you make bare in the fall; the 

 object of which is to prevent evaporation by interrupting the 

 rays of the sun, and thus securing to the roots the moisture 

 necessary to their welfare. 



Grafting and Inoculating. Grafting is a mode of propa- 

 gating varieties of fruit of esteemed quality. Grafts may be 

 cut at any time after the fall of the leaf in autumn, and before 

 the buds begin to swell in the spring. They should be of the 

 preceding year's growth, and are best from bearing trees and 

 exterior limbs. They may be preserved by imbedding their 

 larger ends in clay, a potato, or in moist earth, in a cellar in 

 winter, or in the open ground, partially or wholly covered, in 

 the spring. Grafts are frequently sent across the Atlantic. 



