CHAPTER X. 



PRUNING; AND BUDDING AND GRAFTING NEW 

 TOPS ON OLD TREES. 



FRUITS are acid in cold summers, and compara- 

 tively destitute of flavor. Forced fruit, grown in 

 winter when there is little light, cannot compare in 

 quality with that ripened under the full hlaze of a 

 summer's sun ; and melons, grown in frames cov- 

 ered with mats, possess none of the luscious flavor 

 of those cultivated in the open air. Hence the ad- 

 vantage of a free admission of light and air among 

 the branches of fruit trees, instead of allowing them 

 to be covered with an impenetrable shade of 

 leaves.* 



A distinguished practical writer says, " The ad- 

 vantage of pruning apple trees is generally known ; 

 and unless many of the limbs are cut out, some of 

 the finest varieties become comparatively diminu- 

 tive and insipid. The same care, however, is rare- 



* The position, with regard to shade or sunshine, where 

 some fruits grew, may be ascertained by their color. This 

 remark is very applicable to the Spitzenburgh. Such as have 

 been fully exposed to the sun are of a deep red, and the fla- 

 vor is rich in proportion to the deepness of the color; while 

 such as grow in the shade are pale and insipid. Hence the 

 necessity of good pruning. D. Thomas. 



