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THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



want more wood, you must have an 

 eye to their welfare, and endeavour 

 to induce them also to form embryo 

 fruit-spurs. At the end of June 

 pinch out the points of all the 

 leaders; this will stay their growth 

 for a time, but they will recover, and 

 begin to put out side-shoots; pinch 

 these if they grow beyond a mere 

 point, leaving only three leaves. 

 If they form rosette-like tufts of 

 leaves, and show no inclination 

 to form lateral shoot*, leave them 

 alone ; they are doing their duty. 

 Much pinching of the side-shoots of 

 wood in the first year is not desirable, 

 because we want such wood as we 

 have well ripened before winter. In 

 fact, it must be particularly well 

 ripened the second season, because, 

 although embryo flower-buds may be 

 formed the second reason, they will 

 not result in fruit the third season, 

 unless in the autumn of the second 

 season the wood which bears them is 

 ripened so as to be quite hard and of 

 a dark colour. It is to allow time 

 for this that the pinching should be 

 performed as early as possible. If 

 delayed beyond the proper time, it 

 is an injury rather than a benefit. 



At the winter pruning there will 

 probably be required some shorten- 

 ing back of shoots that have escaped 

 pinching, and of others that have 

 pushed late and have not been ob- 

 served. In the winter pruning the 

 matter of principal importance will 

 be to preserve the rounded contour 

 of the tree, to remove shoots that 

 cross each other (for such things will 

 happen, in spite of the utmost watch- 

 fulness, in the growing season), and 

 to remove the soft sappy points of 

 shoots that are not well ripened. 



The third season ought to bring 

 with it a crop of fruit, aud for ever 

 after the trees should bear more and 

 more, and become and more compact 

 and handsome. As soon as the trees 

 have begun to grow in spring, the 

 finger and thumb pruning must com- 

 mence and be from time to time con- 

 tinued. But wherever a shoot is 

 wanted to fill up a gap, one should 

 be allowed to push, and all late 

 growths that arise through a wet 

 autumn or through the trees being 



in too rich a soil had best be allowed 

 to push, as, if pinched, they can come 

 to nothing, and it is best to let the 

 sap have its way in such cases, and 

 remove the gross shoots to wiihin one 

 or two buds of their base at winter 

 pruning. In removing other surplus 

 shoots, it is good practice always to 

 leave one or two buds. Never cut 

 them clean to the base unless they 

 are in such positions that the forma- 

 tion of fruit-spurs from the buds at 

 the base would be useless. It will 

 be impossible to form every tree to 

 an exact model ; each variety has its 

 own peculiar habit of growth ; aud it 

 is not desirable to chop a tree about 

 in order to induce it to grow in some 

 way contrary to its nature. The 

 chief object of the cultivator is not 

 so much to alter the habit of the tree, 

 as to coax its nutritive energies into 

 the formation of fruit-buds at an 

 early age. If carefully watched over 

 the first few years, they will require 

 but little attention after they have 

 become fruitful, as the tendency to 

 vigorous growth will then be checked. 



But, if all goes well, the cultivator 

 may expect, in the third or fourth 

 year, trees of some such form aud 

 fertility as is represented in the ac- 

 companying sketch from one among 

 many fruitful bushes in our own col- 

 lection. II. 



