THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



123 



branches break out into secondary 

 branches, and these again into laterals, 

 on which, for the most part, are the 

 fruit-spurs. It is of this class, which 

 may be roughly said to be formed 

 without plan, that I shall make a few 

 observations now, as it is the easiest 

 form of bush to produce, requires the 

 least care and attention, and all things 

 considered, in, though the least artis- 

 tic, the most useful. 



When it is said that the tree is 

 formed " without plan," there is a 

 slight exaggeration. The plan is to 

 arrange in a given compass, and in 

 an outline which may be, for sim- 

 plicity's sake, termed "round," the 

 largest possible number of branches, 

 laterals, and fruit-hearing twigs. The 

 cultivator must always bear in mind 

 that any growth which tends to put 

 the tree out of shape, or spoil its 

 proportions, is inimical to success, 

 and that every objectionable feature 

 allowed to continue will become more 

 objectionable the next season, and 

 tend sooner or later, to spoil the tree 

 altogether. One of the principal ob- 

 jects of the cultivator must be to 

 check the tendency of the tree to in- 

 crease in height, and encourage every 

 tendency to the formation of wood 

 near the bottom. Suppose the graft 

 put on ihis spring, and now starting 

 nicely, it may, if a vigorous growing 

 variety, make a rod three feet or 

 more this season, in spite of its being 

 on a dwarfing stock. When it has 

 grown two feet, nip out the point, and 

 you may get a few side-branches 

 formed sufficiently early for the wood 

 to be well ripened. I will suppose 

 the tree to be as represented in the 

 cut at the close of the season. The 

 question arises, how is it to be 

 pruned? There can be but one 

 method, and that is, shorten back the 

 leader to a point where the wood 

 is thoroughly hard, and the side- 

 branches the same ; and with a view 

 tofo:m a bush as speedily as possible, 

 the pruning may be performed after 

 the fashion represented in the dia- 

 gram. The result of pruning back 

 to the ripe, hard wood, will be that 

 the next spring the top or terminal 

 bud left on each shoot will lead the 

 way, and grow with vigour. Let 



them do so in order to extend the 

 skeleton, and get the foundation of 

 the tree established. But while these 

 are pushing, there will also be pro- 

 duced numerous thin spray-like side- 

 shoots in all parts of the tree. As 

 soon as you perceive these, pinch 

 them all back to the third leaf; that 

 is, leave only three leaves, and when 

 the buds from the axils of those 

 leaves have pushed, pinch them back 

 in like manner to two leaves. It is 

 important to perform this operation 

 early ; if the first pinching is not done 



by about the middle of May, and the 

 second pinching by the middle of 

 June, there is no fair prospect of 

 attaining the desired result thereby. 

 But if the pinching takes place at the 

 proper time, while the points of the 

 shoots are quite soft and very few 

 leaves are fully developed, those 

 pinched-back twigs will give up the 

 endeavour to form wood, their 

 vigour will be reduced by the pinch- 

 ing process, and they will form em- 

 bryo blossom buas for your special 

 benefit the next season. 



Meanwhile, as you have allowed 

 the top buds to push, because you 



