194 AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



or bunches of blossom buds are thrown out from the older 

 growth, while in other varieties the blossoms are produced 

 chiefly from the terminal Imds of young shoots, upon which, at 

 matm-ity, the fruit dangles. 



Generally, the trees of heavy-bearing varieties are not long 

 lived, being either constitutionally feeble or exhausted by ex- 

 cessive crops, or both. 



It will be found best, on the whole, to choose varieties that 

 beai' moderately, and of which the fruit is neither so small as 

 to be tedious in the gathering, nor so large as to expose it to 

 be swept oiF by winds, though, in reference to the russet and 

 Jersey sweeting named above, special peculiarities will always 

 secure them a place in the orchard, in spite of their compara- 

 tively early decay. It may also be added that the habit of 

 heavy alternate bearing may be changed in the youth of the 

 tree by perseveringly stripping it of blossoms in the bearing 

 year until it is forced into blossoming moderately every season, 

 or only half the tree may be so disciplined, or one side may be 

 grafted with another variety of diverse habit. 



RRODUCTION OF NEW FRUITS, &C. 



From the knowledge we possess, it seems probable that the 

 kinds of fruit, as well as individual trees, have but a limited 

 period of healthful growth and productiveness, and hence new 

 kinds become desirable. 



In reference to fruits, the theory has been proposed that, in 

 attempting to raise improved varieties of fruits from seed, we 

 should select for intermixtm'e, not individuals of the very 

 best known varieties, but those of a somewhat inferior grade 

 which are in process of amelioration, thus rmming them, as 

 it were, on an independent line upwiu-d from the original base 

 stock. 



This theory may he good, but it does not look so. We may 

 assume that in each family of fruits there is a point of excel- 

 lence beyond which human skill in its culture will not be able 

 to carry it. If our best-known varieties have already attained 

 to this perfection in their various kinds, the most direct course 

 would seem to be to reproduce them anew from seed as nearly 



