242 APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES. 



similar system, has been made to bear fruit in unfa- 

 vourable climates {Sort. Trans., ii. 366) ; and every 

 gardener knows how universally it is applied to the 

 Pear, Apple, Plum, and similar trees.* Even the 

 Fig-tree has thus been rendered much more fruitful 

 than by any other method. "Whenever," says Mr. 

 Knight, " a branch of this tree appears to be extending 

 with too much luxuriance, its point, at the tenth or 

 twelfth leaf,- is pressed between the finger and 

 thumb, without letting the nails come in contact with 

 the bark, till the soft succulent substance is felt to 

 yield to the pressure. Such branch, in consequence, 

 ceases subsequently to elongate; and the sap is 

 repulsed, to be expended where it is more wanted. 

 A fruit ripens at the base of each leaf, and during the 

 period in which the fruit is ripening, one or more of 

 the lateral buds shoots, and is subsequently sub- 

 jected to the same treatment, with the same result. 

 When I have suffered such shoots to extend freely to 

 their natural length, I have found that a small part 

 of them only became productive, either in the same 



[* Nothing is more general, of late years, than complaints of the 

 short period of productiveness in the Peach tree, throughout the 

 Middle. States. Although this is often owing to the worm, which 

 girdles the tree at the root, yet the almost total neglect of pruning 

 is a frequent cause of sterility and decay. When left to itself the 

 interior of the head of the tree becomes filled with small dead 

 branches, and the trunk and larger limbs bark-bound and moss- 

 covered: the whole tree is enfeebled; leaves are only produced at 

 the extremity of the long branches, and the fruit borne, if any, is 

 comparatively worthless. By pursuing the practice recommended 

 in the text, the trees may be preserved for a long time in a high 

 state of vigour and productiveness. A J. D.] 



