FRUITS AND FLOWERS. 317 



as said by Dr. Lindley, can we wonder at these results ? " If 

 sap," says the same, (and no better authority can we have,) 

 " ever settles to the roots in a visible form, that is owing to 

 temporary causes, the removal of which occasions its instant 

 re-ascent." That it is the sun in warm days in winter which 

 affects the new growth, is shown by the fact that the morus 

 multicaulis and other half-hardy shrubs and trees, winter better 

 upon the north side of hills rather than tlie south. " If you are 

 planting fruit trees," says an " old digger," "don't be so fool- 

 ish as to set tender trees, such as apricots, in warm, sunny 

 places, on the south side of walls, fences and gardens ; such are, 

 depend upon it, the very spots to kill them — between the extra 

 heat of midsummer and that constant freezing and thawing of 

 the trunks in winter, you had better choose a west, even a 

 northern exposure, the latter is much the better in the middle 

 States." 



The summer pruning of the Isabella recommended by Down- 

 ing in his book of Fruits, and which we, in common with him, 

 practiced for many years (wliich was to cut off every shoot two 

 or three joints beyond the outer branch of grapes,) we now 

 believe to be wrong. All the summer pruning which we now 

 give the vines, is to cut off the laterals that spring out of the 

 new growth at the base of the leaves near the fruit bud for the 

 following year to within one joint, leaving one bud to prevent 

 the fruit bud from pushing. Dr. Lindley came out with a paper 

 containing the following excellent propositions, which convinced 

 us of our error : — 



"1. If all the leaves which a tree will naturally form are 

 exposed to favorable influences, and receive the light of a 

 brilliant sun, all the fruit which such a plant may produce will 

 ripen perfectly in a summer that is long enough. 



"2. If all the leaves of a tree are exposed to such influences, 

 all its fruit will advance as far towards ripening as the length 

 of the summer will admit of ; it may be sour and colorless, but 

 that condition will be perfect of its kind. 



" 3. But if all the fruit which a healthy tree will show is 

 allowed to set, and a large part of the leaves is abstracted, such 

 fruit, be the summer what it may, will never ripen. 



