EXCESSIVE CULTIVATION OF FRUIT TREES. 543 
a claim upon the highest energies and efforts of every philan¬ 
thropist, to make its interest more general. I hope that our 
experienced men in the profession of fruit growing will unfold 
themselves, and give us some new light upon this subject, and 
not withhold from the people what they should know. 
In my very limited experience in fruit growing, I have made 
a few observations. 
I have noticed trees that have sprung up, spontaneously, as 
it were, perhaps in some fence corner, or other uncultivated 
spot, uncared for, seemingly, never having come in contact 
with the pruning knife or the gardner’s spade, to disturb their 
sweet repose and healthy growth by severing main roots, and 
thereby converting healthy trees, into sickly, dead hearted 
shrubs. I say that I have known such seedling trees, and un¬ 
der such circumstances to thrive and do well, while apparently 
as good trees, transplanted, nursed and cultivated, would with¬ 
er, become rotten hearted, and soon go the way of all trees. 
Now, for this, there must be a cause—and it is because their 
roots and limbs, and even the soil upon which they stood was 
left undisturbed, and to nature. If not, why is it ? It is a 
fact, that trees are very often injured by being taken up for 
transplanting! Many, I think, trim their trees too much, and 
by so doing deprive the tree, to a great extent, of the means 
of supplying itself with a sufficiency of that kind of food nec¬ 
essary to its healthy growth. 
I have observed that our most thoroughly cultivated orchards 
and most highly enriched, are among those that have suffered 
most during our late severe winters. I believe that trees may 
be so much forced in their growth, in autumn, as to almost in¬ 
sure their destruction during a severe winter such as we have 
heretofore experienced. 
I have noticed that orchards which have been seeded down, 
and the least cultivated, have best withstood the hard winters. 
It seems to be the case, almost invariably, that success in fruit¬ 
growing depends upon two important points—the condition in 
which the soil is kept, and the kind of trees planted. Of the 
