390 
ing under the stubble tends to impoverish the land must be sufficiently 
apparent. 
Plants grown for the sake of their flowers should never be permitted 
to ripen their seeds. The rhododendron and the kalmia of the United 
States are extensively cultivated in the gardens of England ; their beau¬ 
tiful foliage and splendid masses of flowers produced in early spring ren¬ 
dering them general favorites. Not long since it was the practice to let 
them have their own sweet way and ripen their seeds at will, now the 
blossoms no sooner fade than they are removed. By this practice the 
quantity and beauty of the flowers, and the vigor of the plants have 
been considerably increased. 
We cultivate the apple tree for the sake of its fruit, not for the sake 
of its wood. Very early varieties of potatoes do not naturally blossom 
and seed ; prevent the formation of tubers or underground stems, and 
the production of numerous blossoms and seeds will be the result. May 
the quantity or quality of the fruit of our apple and other orchard trees 
be influenced by the length of the stem between the roots and branches, 
by the quantity of wood required to be formed each year ? What are 
the uses or functions of stems ? They support the branches so that the 
foliage may be exposed to light—they convey fluids and serve as deposi¬ 
tories of organized matter. A stem of two or three feet high is as equal 
to the task of supporting the branches and conveying fluids as one of 
six feet. May we not then so manage, or rather mis-manage, our fruit 
trees, as to impose upon them a considerable amount of useless labor by 
unnaturally increasing the distance between the raw material and the 
manufactured product; and may we not further impose upon them the 
task of building up or maintaining a greater amount of storage room 
than the necessities of the tree absolutely require, and so far diminish* 
or limit, as it were, their trading or reproductive capital. 
Tall stems are objectionable for several reasons, when the object of the 
cultivator is to obtain flowers or fruit. An apple tree five or six feet 
high, with a tuft of branches on the top, is much more liable to be in¬ 
jured by boisterous winds than one whose main branches originate two 
or three feet from the ground. The action of the sun in this climate is 
also found to exercise an injurious effect on tall naked stems exposed to 
its influence. The greater the distance between the roots and leaves, the 
