THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



sap finding no outlet that way, the 

 leading bud at top grew with immense 

 vigour, and was allowed to do so, 

 both to keep the roots in activity and 

 to preserve the health of the whole 

 tree. It must always be remembered 

 that the growth of the roots corre- 

 sponds with the growth of leaves and 

 branches ; if we suppress wood buds 

 we suppress roots also ; if a tree can- 

 not form shoots above ground, neither 

 will it form roots below. 



At the end of the season the top 

 of the leader of each of these distaff" 

 trees has the appearance of fig. 1. 

 The growth of the season is easily 

 traced to the point it started from, 

 both by the slightly swollen condition 

 of the wood at the junction of old 

 and young, and by the short inci- 

 pient fruit spurs on the old wood, and 

 the absence of such 

 on the young wood. 

 The question is, what 

 is to be done with this 

 leading shoot ? The 

 answer to that depends 

 on circumstances. If 

 the tree is unfruitful 

 and still inclined to 

 grow vigorously, it 

 may be well not to 

 shorten the leader at 

 all, the superabundance 

 of sap escaping that 

 way may induce the 

 complete ripening of 

 the spurs below, and 

 the production the next 

 season of a plentiful 

 crop. But if the tree 

 is in good bearing con- 

 dition, the fruit will con- 

 sume 30 much of its sap 

 that it will be but little 

 disposed to make wood 

 by rampantgrowth. We 

 may then consider another interesting 

 question ; do we wish to increase the 

 height of the tree, or is it high 

 enough ? If we wish to lengthen cut 

 the scaffold pole, the mark a will be 

 about the best point at which to prune. 

 This will leave half a dozen good 

 b uds to develop into spurs and a top 

 bud to lead the way again. If the 

 t ree is tall enough, we must cut at b, 

 and by pinching the top shoots, if they 



push too strong, convert them into 

 spurs instead of allowing them deve- 

 lopment as wood shoots. 



Wow you see we are engaged in a 

 quiet war with the imperious dictator. 

 The tree is full of vigour, and though 

 producing abundance of fruit has 

 still abundance of sap to spare. The 

 month of May has come, and what do 

 we see ? From the point b, to which 



the tree was pruned, two shoots have 

 started with about equal vigour. One 

 of these is in a direct line with the 

 old stem, the other is a perpendicular 

 side-shoot ; they are both going up 

 at euch a pace as to show that there 

 are more races in the month of May 

 than those which take place at Epsom. 

 As soon as this is discovered to be 



