BLEEDING MUST BE PEEVENTBD. 360 



The influence produced upon one part by the abstraction of 

 some other part, thus shown in the development of buds 

 which would otherwise be dormant, is seen in many other ways. 

 If all the fruit of a plant is abstracted one year when just 

 forming, the fruit will be finer and more abundant the succeed- 

 ing year, as happens when late frosts destroy our crops. 

 If of many flowers one only is left, that one, fed by the sap 

 intended for the others, becomes so much larger.. If the 

 late Figs, which never ripen, are abstracted, the early Figs the 

 next year are more numerous and larger. If of two unequal 

 branches, the stronger is shortened "and stopped in its growth, 

 the other becomes stronger ; and this is one of the most useful 

 facts connected with pruning, because it enables a skilful 

 cultivator to equalise the rate of growth of aU parts of a tree ; 

 and, as has been already stated, this is of the greatest 

 consequence in the operation of budding. In fact, the utility 

 of the practice, so common in the management of fruit-trees 

 when 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 practically, that one receives all the sap, which 

 would otherwise 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 Chestnut 

 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 conspicuous ; 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 

 aie unable, when cut through, to coUapse sufficiently to close 

 their own apertures, when they necessarily pour forth their 



