to the Management of Fruit Trees. 501 



but, as this is only applicable to wall trees, the soil for all others 

 should be so adjusted to the climate as to insure their wood ripen- 

 ing in the open garden or orchard. As the most exhausting part 

 of every fruit is the seed, and as the number of seeds in every 

 fruit is limited by nature, it follows that a few fruit grown to a 

 large size will be less injurious to a plant than the same weight 

 of fruit produced in fruits of small size. As in plants in a state 

 of seed-bearing the chief energies of the plant are directed to 

 the nourishment of the seed, so in those fruit-bearing plants in 

 which the fruit is gathered green, such as cucumbers, gourds, 

 capsicums, peas, beans, kidneybeans, &c, none of the fruit 

 should be allowed to mature any seed so long as any of it is 

 gathered in an unripe state. Hence the immense importance of 

 thinning out the blossom-buds of trees before they expand, and 

 thinning out the fruit before the embryo of the seed begins to 

 assume that stage which in berries and pomes is called setting, 

 and in nuts and stone-fruit stoning. When a fruit is once set 

 or stoned, if the embryo of the seed be destroyed by the depo- 

 sition in it of the eggs of an insect, or by the puncture of a needle, 

 the fruit, if it does not fall off, will ripen earlier, but will be in 

 most cases of inferior flavour. The same result will take place 

 to a limited extent even with leaves, when they are punctured. 



Any check given to the head of a tree, such as disleafing, the 

 attacks of insects, disease, overbearing, &c, has a tendency to 

 cause the plant to throw up suckers, if it is natural to the root 

 or stock to do so. As the leaves produced at the base of a 

 young shoot are small, and generally soon drop off, so the buds 

 in the axils of such leaves are never blossom-buds till they have 

 become invigorated by at least another year's growth ; and 

 hence, when young wood is shortened, if blossom is the imme- 

 diate object, it ought not to be cut farther back than to the first 

 large bud. This is particularly applicable in the case of vines, 

 roses, &c. In shortening such wood on spur-bearing trees, such 

 as the apple and pear, only one or two of the imperfect buds are 

 left at the base of the shoot, and these the following year gene- 

 rally become blossom-buds, if the tree is neither too weak nor 

 too luxuriant. In general, winter-pruning a young tree retards 

 the period of its fruit-bearing, but greatly increases the vigour 

 of the tree ; hence delicate trees, such as the peach, require 

 more pruning than very hardy trees, such as the apple and 

 plum. 



" Summer pruning," a friend observes, " effects various objects : 

 it exposes the fruit, where it exists, and also the embryo fruit- 

 buds, and leaves connected with them, to the beneficial influence 

 of light, air, and dews. This is effected by removing those 

 portions of shoots which, as they advance, would more and more 

 shade the lower parts, and prevent them in a great measure 



K k 3 



