6 CORDON TRAINING. 



CHAP. II. 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES OP FRUIT CULTURE. 



The details, brief as they are, of this work, would not 

 readily be appreciated if a few general principles, obvious and 

 reasonable, were not first stated. General maxims are often 

 neglected in practice, so that it becomes necessary to re- 

 peat them in a short work such as this, because they render 

 the details more intelligible. 



Many unskilled persons assert that the scientific culture of 

 fruit trees has neither the effect of increasing their productive 

 powers, nor of prolonging their vitality .'' Both these state- 

 ments are untrue. Experience has fully proved that certain 

 principles are necessary to be followed ; under these the re- 

 sults have been good : it is the deviation from them that is 

 the cause of failure. 



It seems pretty certain that the office of the ascending sap 

 is to nourish and increase the volume of the whole tree, 

 while, by its passage through, and change while in the leaves, 

 and by its return to the roots, it promotes the production of 

 fruit. The sap becomes stored up, and ripened by the action 

 of light and heat, and in proportion as this action is retarded 

 or augmented, the tree is either productive or barren. A 

 certain action communicated to the sap will develop the 

 whole system in redundant wood. All tliis is modified by 

 attendant circumstances, but it is the general rule. 



To regulate, distribute, and harmonize all these functions 

 is the duty of cultivation, and surely the preservation of the 

 balance between root and branch, and between fertility and 

 extension, can but have the effect of increasing the amount of 

 production, and also by economizing the vitality of the tree, 

 lengthening its life. 



The locality chosen for any particular tree is of great im- 

 portance, and demands mucli reflection. In this tlie amateur 

 must submit to be guided by the experience of others, while 



