44 HtSTORY OF FRUITS. 



to the bottom, and so disposing the branches, that the 

 leaves of the upper shoots may not shade those under- 

 neath. 



The Chinese method of raising fruit trees has of late 

 years been practised with success, and with the great 

 advantages of keeping the varieties perfect and an early 

 production of fruit. They strip a ring of bark, of 

 about an inch in width, from a bearing branch, surround 

 the place with a ball of fat earth or loam, with a mixture 

 of cow dung, bound fast to the branch with a piece of 

 sacking or mat: over this they suspend a pot or horn, 

 with water, having a small hole in the bottom just suffi- 

 cient to let the water drop, in order to keep the compost 

 constantly moist. The branch throws roots into the 

 earth just above where the bark has been stripped off. 

 The operation is performed in the spring, and the branch 

 is sawn off and put into the ground at the fall of the leaf. 

 The following year it will bear fruit. 



The cultivation of this our most valuable fruit, has 

 been attended to with so much care of late years, that 

 one of our principal nurserymen (Mr. Hugh Ronalds, of 

 Brentford,) exhibited at the Horticultural Society, in 

 August 1818, sixteen varieties of apples, and in Sep- 

 tember he exhibited fifty-eight other sorts, all grown in 

 his own garden, and considered the finest collection ever 

 exhibited. In the month of October of the same year, 

 he exhibited fifty-three sorts, making in the whole a 

 variety of 127 kinds of this our staple fruit, which, in 

 point of real value, takes place of all others, and affords 

 a variety for all seasons of the year, both for the dessert 

 and for culinary purposes, as well as the drink, of which 

 Philips in Miltonian verse has sung, 



Some ciders have, by art or age, unlearn'd 

 Their genuine relish, and of sundry vines 



