36 HOETICULTUKAL MANUAL. 



sorts bear no pollen they are able to store more perfectly 

 the cell-structure with the needed nutriment to resist 

 frost and exposure. 



This storing up of plant-food is important in orchard 

 fruit-culture. The variety of the orchard fruits and small 

 fruits that ripens its wood perfectly in autumn will best 

 protect its fruit-buds in winter and its flowers in spring, 

 and will best endure frosts and trying weather conditions. 

 In top-working and ringing this same principle applies. 

 These operations favor the more perfect ripening of all 

 parts of the top, and experience has demonstrated that 

 given varieties top-worked or ringed will bear fruit when 

 the blossoms of root-grafted trees are ruined by frost. 

 The altitude, air-drainage, and porosity of soil and subsoil 

 also have much to do with the ripening of all parts of the 

 tree, including the flowers. 



38. Long Blossoming Period. Varieties of our fruits 

 differ materially in their blossoming habits. Some varieties 

 expand all their flowers in a brief period. Others seem to 

 have two sets of flowers. As an extreme example, some 

 of the east European cherries when white with blossoms 

 show many buds still unopened. If the first bloom is 

 destroyed by frost the later ones are numerous enough for 

 a full crop. If both mature fruit we have an early and 

 late picking. Close observation will show that many of 

 our fruits that do not ripen the crop evenly have a long 

 period of blossoming. ' 



39. Possible Flower Production. To the true lover of 

 horticulture there is a fascination in the work of systematic 

 hand-pollination of a flower. As Lindley said many years 

 ago: " What increases the charm of the game is that 

 although the end of it may be doubtful, yet a good player 

 can judge of the issue with tolerable confidence, and that 



