96 The Principles of Fruit-growing. 



freshly appropriated from the soil. 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. It was admirably enforced 

 by a simple experiment which we made in connec- 

 tion with the foregoing inquiry. On the 15th of 

 February, a branch of a nectarine tree which stood 

 alongside the horticultural laboratorj- 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 three- 

 fourths inch a week later. The leaves finally at- 

 tained their full size upon this branch before the 

 buds upon the remaining or out -door portion of the 

 plant had begun to swell. This experiment is by no 

 means a novel one, for essentially the same thing has 

 been often accomplished with the vine and other plants; 

 but it 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 independent of root action. 



These various experiments and observations show 

 that a mulch can retard flowers and fruit only 

 when it covers the top of the plant as well as the 

 soil. 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 in- 



