APPLE. 1 1 



as it may be called, which render them more thrifty 

 and prolific in one place than in another. Such a 

 circumstance is always worthy the attention of the 

 orchardist. 



Planting an Orchard, — Before proceeding to give 

 directions on this business, the author wishes to 

 guard young planters against being imposed upon, 

 and frightened out of their senses, by representations 

 in learnedly-written books, regarding the preserva- 

 tion of the fibrous roots. These fibres are called 

 spongiols, from the old Latin name given to the roots 

 of asparagus ; but in the books alluded to, the word 

 is only used, the author believes, as a conventional 

 term, to distinguish the active, food-imbibing fibres 

 from the main body of the root. This distinction 

 may be all very well ; but these learned physiologists, 

 attending more to the functions of these fibres, than 

 to practical facts, attribute to the loss or destruction 

 of them all the failures which take place in the busi- 

 ness of transplantation. In this, the man of science 

 is at fault ; because the practical man knows, that 

 leaves on the head of a tree are produced at the same 

 time as the fibres are on the roots ; and, in many 

 cases, both fall off together. The root fibres (or 

 spongiols, if the learned must have it so) of the apple, 

 do not, indeed, all fall ofif, but certainly all become 

 inert and torpid during winter. Besides, it is not 

 altogether to the preservation of the last year's fibres 

 that the planter looks for success : nor can the 

 transplanted tree be much benefited by saving those 

 organs, which have already done their duty. Both 



