CHAP. II. DESSERT FRUITS, 171 



they have become thoroughly united. At the usual time, the 

 beginning of the Eains, inarch the branch thus treated upon a 

 suitable stock, taking for the place of union the portion of the 

 branch just below where the split was made. Upon a branch of 

 the tree thus produced a similar operation is performed, and so on 

 in succession, the result being that the stone of the fruit becomes 

 less and less after each successive operation. 



" Being unable, as indeed I still am, to conceive on what principle 

 a proceeding like this could have any such effect, as was stated, I 

 must say I felt at first rather incredulous on the subject. Mr. 

 Solano, however, assured me that from having practised it in his 

 own garden he could bear full testimony to its efficacy. He also 

 informed me that the process had been applied likewise to the 

 Grape-vine at Malaga in Spain, and that plants thereby had at 

 last been produced which bore the finest fruit without the slightest 

 vestige of a stone within them. Subsequently to this, and some 

 little time after my arrival at Gowhatty, the late General F. 

 Jenkins, with his usual liberality, kindly put at my disposal a large 

 manuscript book of notes he had made upon gardening. On read- 

 ing it through I met with the following, of which I made an 

 extract : * To prevent the formation of seed in Guavas, take a 

 young tree, split it in the middle with a carving-knife, about 12 or 

 1 5 inches up and down ; pick up the pith ; close it ; cover it up 

 with earth, and bind it up with straw. The tree will grow as 

 before, but the fruit will have no seeds in them.' 



" The General told me he had never tried the process himself, 

 and could not therefore testify as to its merits; nor could he 

 remember where he had learnt it." 



Where fruit-trees bear over abundantly, it is well to what is 

 called " thin-out." This consists in pinching off a very large 

 portion of the young fruit soon after it is formed, or, better still, 

 the blossoin-buds before they expand. The fruit that is left is 

 thus rendered much finer in size and quality, and the pro- 

 ductiveness of the tree on the following year is not impaired, as 

 it otherwise would be. The practice, however, though often 

 in Europe considered indispensable, is seldom if ever adopted in 

 India. 



