490 
FRUIT TREES AND THEIR CULTURE. 
natural size. But suppose, instead of a pot 
being used at all, the root be sufficiently 
pruned, and it be planted in the open ground, 
it -will bear as early ; and as the root will, if 
long in the ground, grow rapidly, and soon 
excite growth instead of fruit, the tree must 
be pruned again at the root, and replenished 
to keep it bearing. After which second 
pruning, it may continue to bear, because the 
head having grown sufficiently beyond the root 
to keep its advantage, the root will not be 
able to surpass in growth and capacity the 
power of the tree itself. In general, there is 
too little consideration in planting trees. The 
nature of the soil, the situation, the natural 
means of supplying nutriment, and other 
circumstances, should always be considered, 
yet they are for the most part neglected 
by those who furnish their own gardens. In 
cases where people wish to do more than their 
neighbours, they will dig holes for fruit trees, 
and fill up with rich composts, causing the 
trees to grow vigorously so long as any of the 
artificial nutriment remains ; and during all 
that period, the germs of leaves and branches 
are alone excited, and the complaint is, that 
they will not bear fruit. "When, in the course 
of years this soil has given out the superfluity 
of nourishment, and the supply is lessened, 
the trees begin to bear, and that profusely. 
Those who have had much to do with fruit- 
trees against houses, will have observed that 
some will go all to wood for years, and scarcely 
bear a flower or fruit. This has often per- 
plexed the owners, and we have repeatedly 
known them to be cut down in despair of their 
ever bearing, when perhaps another two or 
three years Avould so far mature them as to 
make amends for the past by heavy crops. In 
such a case as this, we should dig down to the 
roots, and examine them ; if there were any 
tap root, we should begin our experiment by 
cutting it off, that is, by cutting right through 
it without wanting to remove it, nor should 
we cut it too close up to the tree, because it 
is not unlikely that it may be the chief sup- 
port of the plant. This, however, would be 
the result of carelessness in planting, because 
all downright or tap roots ought to have been 
cut off at the planting time. If, on the con- 
trary, w r e found spreading roots running out 
very strong, we should remove the ground to 
some distance, and cut the strongest through. 
so as to shorten it considerably ; and if this 
happened to be the chief one, it might be a suf- 
ficient check. The result of this must be to 
throw the tree into bearing, or kill it, but by 
taking pains to expose the principal roots, we 
may easily see their extent, and by shortening 
two or three of the most rambling, we may 
do all that is desired. It is quite certain that 
when the sap is in quantity, and quality, 
(which depends on quantity,) fit for the excite- 
ment of the germ of flowers and fruit, it is less 
exciting to those of leaves and branches, and 
any sudden change which fits it for one, unfits 
it for the other. Thus, suppose two trees 
were full of blossom buds, the effect of well 
elaborated sap of the previous summer, remove 
some of the soil to form a trench three or four 
feet from the stem, or more distant if a 
large tree, and fill that up with strong liquid 
manure, so that it shall reach the fibres 
of the roots to the end of them all round, 
and it will so alter the supply of sap as 
to excite the germs of leaves and branches, 
instead of letting the bloom and fruit 
take their natural course; they are blighted 
in embryo, leaves and branches alone grow, 
the others fall away in dust almost imper- 
ceptible, the sheath that enclosed them 
as well as the previously latent germs of 
flowers and fruit opens to disclose a new 
branch instead of the now blighted flowers. 
Now, in all cases of monstrous flowers and 
plants, the monstrosity has been occasioned 
by some rapid change of condition such as 
we have mentioned ; that is to say, by some 
sudden excitement causing a struggle be- 
tween the incipient organs for the mastery. 
If the blooming process is too forward to be 
actually destroyed, and is only partially 
blighted, there will frequently be seen half 
blossoms and bits of flowers. In the case of 
roses, the leafy process may be excited enough 
to push through the flower, and the bloom 
will be found actually surrounding a branch 
which has so protruded. In many other sub- 
jects similar deformities arise, not from the 
changing of one organ into another, but from 
the excitement of opposite organs which grow 
and displace others which do not. When it is 
considered that the germ of a whole tree is 
contained in a seed, the germ of branches 
in a bud, — that in fact microscopic powers of 
the highest degree simply show us a crowd of 
atoms in a plant, there is nothing extraordi- 
nary in the fact that, through some organs 
being half blighted, and others being unnatu- 
rally excited, leaves displace flowers, force 
themselves out of character, and occasionally 
produce odd combinations ; nay, in some in- 
stances, the germs fracture one another, and 
it is nothing very extraordinary to see por- 
tions of leaves fairly grafted to portions of 
petals ; but in fruit trees, generally speaking, 
the growth of the buds which are denomi- 
nated fruit buds, into flowers and fruit, is 
alike all over the tree, or, if excited by the 
means we have pointed out, before it is too 
far advanced, the growth of leaves, and the 
blight of the embryo flowers and fruit are as 
universal. It follows then, that when the 
trees once begin to bear, they continue to do so, 
