HOKTICUT.TURK AND FrUIT RaISING. 337 



injury to the tree, and 1 am quite sure is a benefit, as also 

 a preventive to the pests that infest our orchards. 



A few words in regard to the training and pruning of 

 our trees. Let this be a study from the time of setting to 

 the time of fruiting, for, among all the mistakes to which 

 we as farmers are subjected, none seem to me more sad 

 than the want of sound discretion in the proper heading of 

 our trees. In the first place, let us consider how high we 

 would head our trees. I am very much in favor of low 

 limbing. I would never limb or head a tree more than two 

 and one-half feet from the ground, and would, under or- 

 dinary circumstances, head them two feet instead of 

 more. My reasons are that low limbing protects the body 

 of the tree from the sun and renders it much more conven- 

 ient for gathering the fruit, while the fruit is less liable to 

 injury from bruising. 



To sliape the head of your tree, follow upon the spiral . 

 stock to the height you would wish the head to start, and 

 with a sharp knife cut from the opposite side of the bud 

 from which you wish to start the upper limb of your tree, 

 slanting the knife upward, making a smooth gash near the 

 bud. Then allow three or four buds to grow, to make the 

 proportion of the tree to correspond with your own taste, 

 nipping all other buds in their early start. We should al- 

 low our imagination to carry us on in the progress of our 

 trees for several years. Then, starting with the three or 

 four branches,* as above named, we may easily watch their 

 progress, and when, as they naturally Mill, a bud puts forth 

 in the formation of a limb that, in our imagination, will 

 interfere witli a well balanced head in future years, we 



