244 APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES. 



in the management of fruit trees which are very 

 young, turns entirely upon this. A seedling tree has a 

 hundred buds to support, and consequently the stem 

 grows slowly, and the plant becomes bushy -headed : 

 but being cut down so as to leave only two or three 

 buds, they spring upwards with great vigour, and, 

 being reduced eventually to one, as happens practi- 

 cally, that one receives all the sap, which would other- 

 wise be diverted into a hundred buds, and thrives 

 ■ accordingly, the bushy head being no longer found, 

 but a clean straight stem instead. In the Oak and 

 the Spanish Chesnut this is particularly conspicuous. 

 Nothing is more strictly to be guarded against than 

 the disposition to bleed, which occurs in some plants 

 when pruned, and to such an extent as to threaten 

 them with death. In the Vine, in milky plants, and 

 in most climbers or twiners, this is particularly con- 

 spicuous ; and it is not unfrequently observed in 

 fruit trees with gummy or mucilaginous secretions, 

 such as the Plum, the Peach, and other stone fruits. 

 This property usually arises from the large size of the 

 vessels through which sap is propelled at the periods 

 of early growth, which vessels are unable, when cut 

 through, to collapse sufficiently to close their own 

 apertures, when they necessarily pour forth their 

 fluid contents as long as the roots continue to absorb 

 them from the soiL If this is allowed to continue, 

 the system becomes so exhausted as to be unable to 

 recover from the shock, and the plant will either 

 become very unhealthy, or will die.* The only 

 * [A solution of Gum Shellac in alcohol, of the consistence of thin 



