FRUITS AND FLOWERS. 813 



unquestionably do for a time, but not, we apprehend, for perma- 

 nency. In nature, there is an equilibrium between the roots 

 and tops of all trees, and by cutting off the tap root, we inter- 

 fere with its healthy action by producing a forced growth, and 

 a sort of plethora, which may tend to produce disease, although 

 it may hasten its bearing. Another cause for this decay may 

 be from the practice of Van Mons ; many of our new varieties 

 originally came from him, the leading feature of whose theory 

 was to subdue or enfeeble the original coarse luxuriousness of 

 the tree, gathering his fruit from which he took his seed before 

 fully ripe, and allowing the fruit to rot ; he cut off the tap root, 

 and annually shortened the leading and side branches, besides 

 planting his trees very near together. Duhamel, of France, it 

 is said, was in the habit of planting seed from the finest table 

 pears of his day, for many years, without producing one good 

 variety. Van Mons, on the contrary, by the enfeebling pro- 

 cess, has produced more than a score of fine varieties. May 

 this not possibly be another cause for the appearance of many 

 trees upon which his varieties are grown ? The healthiest pear 

 trees we have recently seen were upon the farm of General 

 Newhall, at Lynnfield. These were grown from seed sown 

 some years since, were remarkably thrifty, and much larger 

 than any we have ever seen at that age from the seed. A few 

 of them were in flower ; and these trees had not been pruned 

 in root or side branches, their side branches protecting the 

 trunk from the scorching rays of an August sun. We appre- 

 hend that it will be found, sooner or later, that this cutting ofi" 

 the tap root and pruning the side limbs of our trees when 

 young, is a bad practice. An Illinois cultivator has said that 

 the " effects of pruning the trunks of young trees severely, 

 results from disturbing the natural relation of the ascending 

 and descending sap ; he allows the shoots on the trunks to grow 

 on, and that in two years they covered them to the ground ; 

 his trees then started with a vigorous growth throughout the 

 whole top, and are now loaded with fruit, while a neighbor 

 who continued the practice of trimming the bodies of his trees 

 lost every one by what he called pear blight." 



Trees of the apple and pear are subject to a sort of dry 

 canker or desiccation of the bark, which is said by Bravey, of 

 France, as by many of our cultivators, to be caused by the too 



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