342 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



ehuttino: out a s^ood view. Where it is desirable to check the heisfht of such 

 trees as the Norway spruce, cut off the tip or leading shoot before it attains the 

 full height desired ; then two or three leaders will probably be developed in a 

 year or two and the tree will assume a more dense and dwarfish form. At the 

 same time all the side branches can be shortened as much as is desired. If done 

 before the growth takes place in spring, new buds will be formed at the cut 

 and several small branches in the place of each larger one removed. 



Pines can also be shortened in, but these only form new shoots at the joints 

 or whirls, hence it is best to cut at one of these. A better way still, with vouns: 

 2:)Ines, is to go over them in the latter part of spring, when the new shoots 

 have just pushed forth and are very tender and brittle, and break off with the 

 lingers the center shoot in each whirl, and the others also if the growth needs 

 to be severely checked. Hemlock and arbor vitse can be pruned with knife or 

 shears as closely as desired, and hedges or screens of all kinds should be closely 

 clipped every spring before new growth begins. M. B. Bateham. 



ANOTHER UPON THE SAME. 



We have been in the practice for many years of pruning evergreens as freely 

 as deciduous trees, and have found great advantage in the practice, wherever a 

 better or more symmetrical form was desirable. They may be cut freely if 

 the growth of the tree is vigorous, but the same object may be reached with 

 moderate growers by pinching off the shoots early in the season. Small, dis- 

 torted trees, Avhich were unfit for sale in the nursery, have been changed in a 

 few years into objects of symmetry and beauty by both modes of treatment 

 combined. Josiah Iloopes states, in a late number of the Tribune, that early 

 in spring he cuts his evergreens freely into shape without regard to buds or any- 

 thing else. Pines, with their scanty lateral buds, are easily made to produce 

 regular conical heads. The fault with some of tlie pines is their thin growth; 

 with a little attention we find that this fault may be corrected by early pinch- 

 ing back the new shoots. Take the Scotch or Austrian pine, for example, or 

 such specimens as have long and slender shoots. When they have grown two 

 or three inches early in the season, pinch off all the ends. They will form 

 new buds, and an open head may be thus changed into a dense and compact 

 one. The natural, graceful form should be preserved to a certain extent, and 

 the tree not be chan^red to mathematical stiffness. John J. Thomas. 



FANCY FRUIT-TREE TRAINING. 



It is only in mild and genial climates that it is worth while to give artificial 

 forms to trees. In such places growth is favored, and the tree goes on mak- 

 ing wood without stopping to the slower work and greater expenditure of re- 

 fined material that is involved in the formation and storinfj of fruit buds. 

 Bending of the branches in the full flow of their growth, and tying them 

 down, checks the wood growth in time to favor fruitage. Tiiere arc still 

 stronger reasons for the applicability of such ti'aining where the climate or 

 the soil or both are uncono-enial. In such locations thei'e is a constant liabil- 

 ity to loss of branches by drying or freezing or obscure blights. Tlie cultiva- 

 tor soon tires of training shoots to see them perish, lie improves the soil by 



