96 The Principles of Fruit-growing. 
freshly appropriated from the soil. This is well 
illustrated by placing well-matured twigs of apple 
or willow (or other early-flowering plants) in vases 
of water in winter, when the buds will burst and 
flowers will often appear. It was admirably enforced 
by a simple experiment which we made in connec- 
tion with the foregoing inquiry. On the 15th of 
February, a branch of a nectarine tree which stood 
alongside the horticultural laboratory was drawn 
into the office through a window. This office was 
maintained at the temperature of a living room. 
On the 6th of April the buds began to swell, and 
the young leaves had reached a length of three- 
fourths inch a week later. The leaves finally at- 
tained their full size upon this branch before the 
buds upon the remaining or out-door portion of the 
plant had begun to swell. This experiment is by no 
means a novel one, for essentially the same thing has 
been often accomplished with the vine and other plants; 
but it must impress upon the reader the fact that 
much of the bursting vegetation of springtime is 
supported by a local store of nutriment, and is more 
or less independent of root action. 
These various experiments and observations show 
that a mulch can retard flowers and fruit only 
when it covers the top of the plant as well as the 
soll. If the ground could be kept frozen for a 
sufficiently long period after vegetation begins, the 
plant would consume its supply of stored food, and 
might then be checked from inactivity of the root, 
but this would evidently be at the expense of in- 
