422 THE OBJECTS OF TEAINING 



after limb dies away, fruit does not set, and all its spruceness 

 ends in rags and tatters. This comes of neglect of first 

 principles. Not that a gardener should undervalue in the 

 smallest degree the rules which long experience has estab- 

 lished ; quite the contrary. It is because it is observed without 

 intelligence, and without a thought to first principles, that 

 mere routine, however excellent, is apt to lead to failure. And 

 it may be asserted with perfect truth that in training fruit- 

 trees, it is better to understand principles and to be ignorant 

 of rules of practice, than to be familiar with the latter and 

 unacquainted with the former. In this place principles only 

 have to be adverted to. 



It is probable that the intention of the first gardener who 

 trained a tree was to gain some advantage of climate, by 

 availing himself of a waU or other screen ; and this is still one 

 of our greatest objects ; partly with a view to guard the flowers 

 in spring from cold, and especially cold winds, partly to expose 

 the leaves and fruit to a hotter temperature than would other- 

 wise be gained, and in some measure to ripen wood with more 

 certainty. 



That training a tree over the face of a waU will protect the 

 blossoms from cold must be apparent, when we consider the 

 severe effect of excessive evaporation upon the tender parts ; a 

 merely low temperature wiU produce but little comparative 

 injury in a still air, because the more essential parts of the 

 flower are very much guarded by the bracts, calyx, and petals, 

 which overlie them, and, moreover, because radiation will be 

 intercepted by the branches themselves placed one above the 

 other, so that none but the uppermost branches which radiate 

 into space wiU feel its full effects ; but, when a cold wind is 

 constantly passing through the branches and among the flowers, 

 the perspiration, against which no sufficient guard is provided 

 by nature, becomes so rapid as to increase the amount of cold 

 considerably, besides abstracting more aqueous matter than a 

 plant can safely pai't with. To prevent this being one of the 

 great objects of trainiag trees, it is inconceivable how any one 

 should have recommended such devices as those mentioned 

 in the liorticuUwral Transactions^ ii. Appendix, p. 8., of 



