372 . GARDENING FOR THE SOUTH. 



ately, keep the system in proper tone. Children are more 

 healthy if allowed to use, in moderate quantity, fully ripe 

 fruit. Apples, indeed, are really nutritive, and. are often 

 employed in feeding domestic animals. For the table they 

 are prepared in many ways (in all of which they are 

 wholesome), as by baking, stewing, in pies, tarts, pud- 

 dings, jellies, and preserves. They are also dried for 

 winter use. Choose for this purpose those which will 

 cook tender, and are of fine, brisk flavor. 



The apple may be propagated by cuttings, which may 

 be planted like most other cuttings, with both ends bent 

 downward like an inverted U, thus q. The upper part 

 of the bow should be crowned with a bud, which should 

 be just beneath the surface of the soil. But the best mode 

 is by budding or grafting on seedling stocks. The seed 

 should be planted in good soil, at any time during the 

 winter months, in rows eighteen inches apart. Keep them 

 clean during the summer, and, if the soil and season have 

 been favorable, they may be taken up the next spring, the 

 roots shortened, and then whip-grafted just above the sur- 

 face. Reset them in good soil, in rows three feet apart, 

 and one foot in the row. Those which were not large 

 enough to graft may be also reset, and will do to bud 

 during the summer. The next winter, those well grown 

 may be set where they are to remain. If any of the plants 

 are infested with the woolly aphis, wash them with tobacco- 

 water; or, if you have enough without them, burn them 

 up. The plants should be placed in the orchards twenty- • 

 five or thirty feet apart. The intervening space, for the 

 first few years may be filled with dwarf pears, quinces, 

 plums, or peaches, which can be cut down when the apple 

 trees require the whole ground. A thin mulching of leaves, 

 straw, or decayed tan-bark, is a useful application about 

 the roots of the trees 



