The Tra£iical Kitchen Gardiner. % 5 



thor) prefent you with fruit at the ex- 

 tremities of their branches, but 'tis little 

 worth, as being fo far diftant from the 

 root that the fap fpcnds it felf, in its 

 tedious palTage, before it arrives, as you 

 will find by its withered branches. 



Thus (fays he) you fee I am careful to 

 purge the ftems of all the fmall, ftrag- 

 gling, and unprofitable branches, from 

 which there is no expedation of good 

 fruit, whilft offending of thofe that have 

 well-knit melons on them at the ends 

 of their branches : I conftantly take a- 

 way the end of that branch on this fide, 

 (he fiiould have faid, on the extremity 

 of the fruit, but the diftance he does not 

 tell us,) which divaricating into other 

 ufeiefs wanderers, would rob and de- 

 prive the nutriment derived from the 

 root 5 neverthelefs, with this caution, 

 that fome other lefs noxious branches 

 be left to fhade the fruit, that it be not 

 left quite naked, and expofed to fuch a 

 fcorching heat as would hinder its growth 

 in coming to maturity, which is forty 

 days in knitting into fruit, before it ar- 

 rives to its full perfeftion. ^f,y 



1 have already hinted at what a oxAXA-nagememcf 

 cal junfture it is when the fruit of me^'t'"^'^"/'^ 



' the fetmg 



U 3 Ions of the fruit. 



