301 Modern Improvements in Horticulture, 



fications of all these — all >vhich, either promote or check the 

 natural luxuriance of the tree ; and accordingly the kind of 

 fruit, or mode of bearing, fixes, or ought to fix, the form 

 which should be adopted. Sometimes perfect symmetry may 

 be united with fruitfulness ; as the fan form for peach, nectarine, 

 and morella cherries ; the horizontal style for pears ; and the 

 irregular for apricots, plums, mulberries, apples, and spur- 

 bearing cherries ; and with vines and figs, upright stems, 

 horizontal branches, and pendent shoots will be found, under 

 he pruning and training of a skilful hand, the most successful. 

 Skill is everything in this process, as no particular rule can 

 equally apply in all cases. Too much knife only increases the 

 demand for its use ; and, therefore, symmetry should always 

 give way to the object for which the tree is planted ; because, 

 we impose a form and a confined space to a tree which is 

 constantly endeavouring to fly from it, and, therefore, the 

 expert trainer will exhaust the exuberance of the tree by 

 compelling it to take such a form, and thereby divert the 

 current of the fluid into unnatural directions, so as to mode- 

 rate its rampant flow, and consequently turn that to fructifi- 

 cation, which would otherwise be wasted in sterile and 

 disorderly luxuriance*. 



The open garden is divided into compartments for the sake 

 of regular cultivation ; for this purpose, walls are unsightly — 

 hedges are equally so, and unprofitable ; a fruit-bearing paling, 

 or espalier as the French call it, is in all respects proper. 

 On these, the hardier kinds of fruit-trees are trained, in several 

 ways, though the horizontal is the most convenient. Some 

 proprietors, disliking this unnatural form, prefer planting in the 

 same place without rails, and allowing the trees to form their 

 own head ; and by imposing such checlts on the growth, as will 

 dispose them to a moderate magnitude, they present, when 

 covered with fruit, a most gratifying spectacle. 



* Regular and neatly trained trees are a material object of almost every gardener's 

 attention. It is a mark of practical precision, and gives an appearance of me- 

 thodical order to the garden ; admitting this, too much should not be sacrificed to 

 right lines and symmetry. Trees Avhich have been the victims of this custom, often 

 become unsightly and unprofitable, by losing their bearing wood near the stem ; 

 but the careful practitioner obviates this, by timely insertions of grafts or buds, iu 

 the vacant places ; than which, there is not a more judicious and useful improve- 

 ment in arboriculture. 



