FACT NUMBER THREE. 59 



ing it to severe bruises and consequent decay. At the out- 

 set, it was a long and narrow web, attached to the tree by a 

 loop, and carried round by the hand; but when it was made 

 a depository for the worm, it was constructed after the man- 

 ner represented in the opposite cut. 



When this sheet is designed for a very large tree, it may be 

 made thirty feet square; but one of half that size will answer 

 for the peach or ordinary apple tree. Its construction is very 

 simple and cheap, and being of two equal parts, may be easily 

 preserved, by being rolled up like a flag, round the pole or 

 rope attached to the border of each, and placed under cover. 



Though Winter Fruit should always be gathered by the 

 hand, individually, and with more care and tenderness in the 

 handling than so many hen's eggs, yet the ordinary Fall 

 Fruit as well as the Rare Ripe, may be gathered by this 

 sheet, and, if need be, piled at the root of the tree, which great- 

 ly expedites the operation of picking fruit. In connection 

 with the treatment of the Peach Tree, there is another fact 

 which was originally intended to form the closing part of 

 this work, but which, from circumstances beyond our pres- 

 ent control, cannot now be broached. The Fact here refer- 

 red to, relates principally to a new and improved mode of 

 Ingrafting, Inoculating and Pruning fruit trees in gen- 

 eral, — a mode which experience proves to be an important 

 step gained in the art of cultivating fruit. 



Now, as we are not able to speak on this point, it remains 

 only to treat of the frauds which have crept into the business 

 of the nurserymen and which seem to threaten both a dirth 

 of fruit, and the destruction of the character of our country 

 in her ability to grow fruit. We refer to this matter in no 

 other spirit than that of regret. — a painful duty ; we shall 

 therefore be as brief as possible. 



It has already been observed that, in order to procure safe 

 and healthy seedling stock of any kind, and above all of 

 the Peach Tree kind, the ground for tie nursery plants, 



