1873.] THE apple: ITS CULTUEE AND VAEIETIES. CHAPTER V. 251 



painted over with gas tar, and if possible, left to dry before being driven into tlie 

 ground ; this implies a length for the standards of 7 ft. 2 in. If the ground is 

 very light and deep a greater length is desirable ; if hard and retentive, it will 

 quite sufKce for many years. These standards may be placed at 6 ft. apart, and 

 the horizontal bars nailed on at the distances above recommended. The best 

 size for the bars is 1 J in. wide and half an inch thick when planed down to size. 

 They should be well painted, and the least objectionable colour is a neutral tint 

 or grey ; staring colours, as chocolate or green, offend the eye very much. 

 Cordons may be trained on the same principle with shorb standards and a single 

 bar, but are best trained to a single wire, strained at about 1 ft. above the surface 

 or edge of the walks. 



The after-management of all the different methods of training herein 

 treated of, will be practically the same, varying only in degree according to the 

 strength of the trees, and it will consist of summer pinching-back, and winter 

 pruning. The former will require to be regulated by the strength and vigour of 

 the trees, as some will require comparatively little, others constant attention. 

 Weak-growing varieties should be encouraged to make growth by mulchings, and 

 the stopping process must not be carried out too severely, being confined princi- 

 pally to such shoots as develop an undue amount of growth in proportion to the 

 rest of the tree. Strong and vigorous-growing trees, on the contrary, must be 

 more severely handled, and in addition to the root-pruning before treated of, the 

 root action must be influenced by a constant removal of all superfluous growth, 

 or pinching-back, as it is called. This is an operation simple enough to the 

 initiated, but perhaps a few remarks concerning it may be useful to the amateur. 

 The first time of performing this operation during each season will be the most 

 important, because upon its careful performance will depend the formation of 

 future fruit-buds. The branches should be allowed to make a tolerably free 

 growth before the restrictive system is commenced, that is, the shoots should not 

 be stopped until there can be from four to six perfectly formed leaves left at the 

 base of the shoot, the topmost bud of which will most likely break again ; but the 

 lower buds ought either to form fruit-bearing buds at once, or if not, to be so 

 checked as to form the nucleus of future fruit-bearing wood. 



It will very soon be obvious to the intelligent operator that the shoots cannot 

 all be pinched back at the same time, as they will be in different stages of growth. 

 It will be well, therefore, to commence with the strongest, and to follow the 

 process up as the later growth advances. All the after-growth which is thrown 

 out after the stopping process may be pinched back in any v/ay the operator may 

 choose, as it will mostly have to be removed at the winter pruning. 



This winter pruning is another important operation, which, however, will be 

 principally confined to the removal of all immature autumn growth, and the 

 preservation of the balance of the tree, by thinning out all crowded branches, so 

 as to let the light and air circulate freely amongst them. Trees which are trained 

 as bushes especially require to bo tied outwards, and so thinned out inside that 



