before that of the roots, it is soon exhausted, and the blossoms are weak; but immediately upon or after the setting of the fruit, the sun affecting the roots, sap is furnished in superabundance, and the blossoms or fruit are cast off.

The third theorem, viz. the food of plants is taken up by the roots in a state of fluid, and is digested and impelled upwards through the stem, branches, &c. and as it passes, each part of the plant selects and appropriates the portion adapted to its use, and the residue, or that which is excrementitious, is thrown off by the leaves is fully supported by the concurrent testimony of the most eminent of the authors I have quoted, which is seen by what has been said on the office and use of the leaves of plants, and particularly by the experiments cited of the Rev. Mr. Hales, where the branches with leaves were proved to have absorbed and dispensed twenty times more water than those without leaves.

And whether we consider the process of nature in the consumption and appropriation of food by plants, to be complicated and incomprehensible, or conducted on the simple principles of decomposition, evaporation, and inspissation, which are applicable to every visible object and effect; one thing is clear and absolutely certain, viz. that the leaves are necessary to sustain a plant healthy and prolific, for without them, fruit in maturity cannot be produced; and hence it may be concluded, that the leaves never should be removed from the

branches bearing fruit, or from those intended to produce fruit the next year.

An exposure to the sun gives the beautiful colour and fine poignancy of flavour to most fruits; but a shelter from cold and drying winds is equally necessary to insure a fine proportion of size and shape, and to produce a mellowness of pulp; all which qualities are desirable, and may be obtained by permitting the fruit to remain covered by the leaves until it has acquired its full size or growth, and then so to dispose the leaves as to admit the full force of the sun, which may generally be done without taking them off.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth principles are

Fourth. Whether the supply of food be great or small, the fluids taken up must flow or spread over a proportionate surface of trunk, branches, and leaves, and be duly exposed to the action of light, heat, and air, before a tree can attain a perfect fructiferous state.

Fifth. All trees are furnished with many more buds than they can sustain to form fruit and branches, the position of the buds determining their office; and those formed for wood buds occupy the most eligible situation for extending the branches; the others form fruit buds, or lie dormant until wanted to supply the casual loss of any wood buds above them.

Sixth. The loss of any part of the buds or young branches of a tree (provided its constitution be not injured or destroyed) will not retard the

I

action of the roots, but the same supply of food will be taken up and appropriated to the restoration of the leaves and branches lost.

The existence of these laws or principles must be too obvious to escape the observation of any gardener, and yet we see that the general practice is in direct opposition to them; for instead of encouraging and forwarding the extension and enlargement of the surface of the trunk, branches, and leaves of a tree, to induce fructification, it is reduced and retarded as much as possible by shortening and pruning the branches.

It appears as if rich borders were formed, and poor ones manured, to facilitate the increase and growth of branches in the summer, for the purpose of cutting off and wasting them in the winter.

The general instructions of the different authors are, to cut out all luxuriant and superfluous branches; but these terms are either very much misunderstood or misapplied,

Superfluous branches are generally considered to be those which are too luxuriant to bear fruit immediately, and such as grow beyond the prescribed bounds, or in situations where they cannot be allowed room to be fixed in; but if trees are in the first instance properly managed, very few young branches will prove to be superfluous, or too luxuriant.

When the first branches of a young tree, or an old one cut back, are placed in a proper position, and those wood buds removed that are disposed

to form branches where they are not wanted, all other branches may be suffered to grow and remain their full length, and the whole of the sap furnished by the roots will be thus appropriated to an increase of the surface of the tree, which being in due conformity with the laws of Nature, will bring it to a fructiferous state at a much earlier period, than when cut back and shortened.

Branches cannot well be too luxuriant, if growing in a proper place and position; for although these may not bear fruit, they will produce the branches that bear the finest fruit, and by furnishing a larger surface in less time, will produce fruit in less time than weak ones.

A great variety of methods are resorted to, to lessen the supply of sap in particular parts of a tree to induce fructification; but how can it be expected, that a part of a tree forced into a fructiferous state prematurely, by a partial starvation, should produce fruit or seed equal to that of a tree in its full natural vigour, with all its functions complete, and appropriating the whole of a liberal and generous supply to one of the grand purposes for which it was created the propagation of its species ?

It may be said, that by Forsyth's and Knight's methods, the branches that are early fastened in a horizontal position are not weak; but although they may not be at the time comparatively weak, being young branches, and fixed so early in this position, the sap will inevitably form fresh chan

nels, and flow into the more perpendicular branches, so that being deprived of a due supply, as they grow old, they must become weak.

The heading back, and shortening branches, is also recommended as a means of preventing the exhaustion of the soil, and premature decline of the tree the first principle establishes the fallacy of this idea; the gardener who commences the operations of the first season, by lopping off and shortening the branches, will find, that so far from diminishing their number in the places where they are thus shortened, he has produced an increased quantity of branches to cut out and throw away the succeeding season.

If by exhaustion is meant, consuming to waste the stores of the earth, surely the practice thus recommended to prevent most completely operates to the contrary, and promotes exhaustion.

A tree naturally rises from the earth with a.. single stem, and in its progress to attain a fructiferous state, is annually divided, multiplied, and extended in branches; a gardener therefore ought, in his first arrangement of the branches of a tree, to look forward, and keep in view the form he wishes it to attain and to preserve, when full grown, and the space he is desirous to fill; and so to dispose of the branches, the first season, as to establish a foundation to sustain and support the structure he wishes to raise on it.

The seventh and eighth theorems are

Seventh. In all erect growing trees placed in