28 RATIONAL FRUIT CULTURE. 



it, is gradually withdiiiwn from the leaves as the result of 

 the lowering temperature. It recedes down the petioles, or 

 leaf-stalks, into the buds or twigs, and there it remains ready 

 for use in the following spring. This valuable material would 

 be lost to the trees if they were lifted too soon. There is 

 another reason for waiting for the leaves to fall at their own 

 time. As the sap recedes from them, a corky layer of cells 

 is deposited at the base of each stalk, between it and the twig 

 out of which it grows, with the result that, when the loosened 

 leaf breaks off, there is already a kind of scab covering the 

 wound. This is a very important provision of Nature. For 

 disease germs cannot, as a rule, penetrate sound and healthy 

 bark; they can gain entrance only, at the wound. 



LATE PLANTINC;. 



There may be cases in which November planting is im- 

 possible. It must then be done later. It may be done as 

 late as March. It is best to avoid mid-winter, unless the 

 weather happens to be unusually mild. If trees come fiom 

 the nursery during hard frost, they should be placed in a shed 

 until the conditions are more favourable, care being taken 

 that the packing material round the roots does not get danger- 

 ously dry. 



DISTANCES TO PLANT. 



The usual distances for planting are from eight to ten 

 feet for bushes, from ten to twelve feet for pyramids, and 

 eighteen feet, or rather more, for standards. 



A bush is a small tree with a number of more or less 

 upright branches issuing from )K)iii(s not very far from the 

 base; a standard may be regarded as a hush on the top of a 

 single, tall slern, on which it is {^rafted; a pyramid, as the 

 name suggests, has a single, central slom, with side-branches 

 around it, lessening in size as they get nearer the top. The 

 last, growing tiiller than a bush, needs rather more- space. 



