2 RATIONAL FRUIT CULTURE. 



but fail to form or to mature their fruit, and those which bear 

 satisfactory crops. Every gardener should endeavour to ascer- 

 tain and remove the cause of failure, and thus to transfer any 

 tree in either of the two first classes into the third. 



FLOWERS NOT A SIGN OF VIGOUR. 



Failute to flower may be due to some condition which is 

 merely temporary, such as unfavourable weather, or one which 

 is more persistent, such as extreme youth. The chief thing to 

 recognise is that flowers are not a sign of great vigour, but 

 rather the reverse. They are formed not during the period of 

 rapid growth, but afterwards when it is drawing to a. close. 

 In the case of annuals and biennials, the flowering season 

 immediately precedes the end of life; in the case of herbaceous 

 perennials, shrubs and trees, it immediately precedes the sleep 

 of winter. It may be objected that fruit trees, like certain 

 other plants, flower in spring. That, of course, is true; but 

 though the flowers do not open until then, they are actually 

 formed in the previous summer or autimin, their further 

 development being checked by the falling temperature and only 

 resumed when warmer weather comes again in the following 

 year. If a so-called fruit-bud is carefully dissected in winter 

 and examined under the microscope, the bunch of tiny flowers 

 can be seen, complete in all their parts. 



MVMIRE TENDS TO DELAY FLOWERING. 



It follows that manure will not make an infertile tree 

 fertile, for it consists of the material of growth, and by stimu- 

 lating growth we are going the wrong way to get flowers and 

 fruit. A weed in a garden path where it gets little food and 

 moisture will flower long before another of the same species 

 growing in the rich soil of the border alongside. But while 

 the former will produce only a few small flowers, the latter 

 will eventually have many more, and they will be much finer. 

 It is the same with fruit trees, and hence the need of discretion. 

 The owner of extensive grounds who can afford to wait, may 



