S4 PROFITABLE FEUIT-GROWING. 



encroaching on space it is not desired to occupy. 

 That is all. Summer pruning, intelligently carried 

 out on the simple lines indicated, is promotive of 

 fruitfulness, whereas encouraging trees to make a 

 crowd of young shoots in summer to be cut out in 

 winter, is very much akin to working on the tread- 

 mill ; for there is little or no fruit at the end of 

 the labour, and nothing but shoots keep pushing up, 

 to be cut out again in the tedious, profitless, yearly 

 round. 



If dwarf Apple trees miss fruiting for a year or 

 two, through frost destroying the blossoms, too 

 much growth is often made. This can only be 

 checked by reducing the roots, severing some of 

 the strong ones, as shortening the branches alone 

 aggravates the evil. 



Varieties. A good choice is important, be- 

 cause obviously inferior varieties take up as much 

 space, also as much nutriment out of the land, as 

 superior sorts do. At the National Apple Congress 

 of the Eoyal Horticultural Society in 1883, upwards 

 of fourteen hundred varieties considered distinct 

 were shown. The experience there gained ex- 

 ploded a popular fallacy, namely, that certain 

 varieties only succeed in certain districts. Facts 

 proved conclusively that those Apples which 

 were best in the south were also best in the north, 



