Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/111

87&#93; APP produce a crop of fruit quicker than by any other method. New orchards are raised by planting well-grown crab-stocks, and graft- ing them the year after. If the trees are full sized, the tops of them must be cut off in winter, otherwise when grafted, they will, as it is termed, Heed so much, that the grafts will not suc- ceed. The trees should not be cut down to the trunk, but as many branches must be left as look kind above, where it branches out about the thickness of one's arm ; the tops of these must be taken off, about two or three feet above the part where they project from the trunk. Good crab-stocks, for rais- ing new orchards, generally cost from Is. (xl. to 4s. each, according to their quality. Linnjeus considers the apple and the quince as species of the pear-tree, or Pyrus, all the varieties of which are hardy, and will suc- ceed in any common garden soil, if planted in a free situation. They are propagated by grafting and budding upon any kind of pear- stocks, occasionally upon quince, and sometimes upon white-thorn stocks. Apples of every kind may be reared in the manner above de- scribed : and, according to Dr. Anderson, the pure paradise- stock is the best graft. They will not thrive, however, in a low and moist soil, where they are apt to canker, and speedily decay. In a friable loam, they g< neraliy pros- per extremely veil. Pruning. — If a tree be very old, and much, incumbered, the stumps, with all the decayed, rotten, and blighted branches, should be care- fully removed : but, instead of de- la ; ;ii this operation till the trees APP [87 become too old, it ought to be commenced even in the nursery, and regularly continued ; as, by the use of medications, the wounds will heal, without causing any blemishes. When the trees are so luxuriant, as not to bear those prolific spurs from which the fruit proceeds, tire too abundant flow of their juices must be checked by the following method : — the tops of most of the shoots are to be pruned off in Au- gust, the bark perpendicularly slit- ted ill different places, and the trunk cut about one-third through with a saw, but so as not to injure the heart. For the first year, or two, after this experiment, the tree will not bear more fruit than usual, but afterwards its produc- tion will be adequate to every ex- pectation. From this operation, a still fur- ther benefit may be derived. When there is a superabundance of mois- ture, the trees are liable to be co- vered with moss, which affords shelter for caterpillars and other insects 5 but diis process in a great measure cures it, especially if the moss be carefully scraped off, or rubbed with a coarse, wet clodi. The pruning of the tops diverts the channel of circulation, and ac- celerates the growth of the fruit- bearing shoots ; while the cutting of die trunk, across, moderates the great rise of nourishment, or sap. Thus the sawed part will over- grow in so complete a manner, that it cannot be discerned, except from the freshness of its balk. Apple Blossoms are, in some seasons, injured by the devastations of an uncommon numbei of in- , produced from a species of black flies which deposit their eggs in the bud, at its first opening; G 4 and