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An early blossom in the spring, and an early change 

 of colour in the autumnal leaf, would naturally be 

 supposed to indicate a fruit of early maturity, but Mr. 

 Knight was never able to discover any criterion of this 

 kind on which the smallest dependence may be placed. 

 The leaves of some varieties will become yellow and 

 fall off, leaving the fruit green and immature ; and 

 the leaves in other kinds will retain their verdure long 

 after the fruit has perished. The plants whose buds 

 in the annual wood are full and prominent are usually 

 more productive than those whose buds are small and 

 shrunk in the bark ; but their future produce will de- 

 pend much on the power the blossoms possess of 

 bearing the cold, and this power varies in the varieties, 

 and can only be known from experience. Those which 

 produce their leaves and blossoms rather early in the 

 spring are generally to be preferred, for, though they 

 are more exposed to injury from frost, they less fre- 

 quently suffer from the attacks of insects — the more 

 common cause of failure. The disposition to vegetate 

 early or late in the spring, is, like almost every other 

 quality in the apple tree, transferred in different de- 

 grees to its offspring ; and the planter must therefore 

 seek those qualities in the parent tree which he wishes 

 to find in the future seedling plauts. The best 

 method Mr. Knight was able to vegetate very early 

 in the spring, has been by introducing the farina of the 

 Siberian Crab into the blossom of a rich and early 



