ESPALIER TRAINING. 



543 



leaves enough to carry on the elaboration 

 of the sap that is wanted to perfect these 

 fruit-buds or spurs. 



But while you ar.e preparing to create 

 new spurs to produce fruit, you must cut out 

 those that have already borne fruit to any 

 great extent, and not allow even the most 

 vigorous to be crowded, or left to grow too 

 near to eacli other, as your fruit will depend 

 on the judgment used in this respect, for its 

 size, beauty and quality. 



About the middle of September, when 

 the sap has ceased, in a good measure, to 

 move with effect, all the shoots that you 

 have cut-in or shortened in July, must be 

 cut off down to the buds or fruit-spurs that 

 are already formed near the base of the 

 shoots, which have been thus prepared, in 

 order that they may have all the benefit of 

 the remaining heat of the season to per- 

 fect juices, and by its elaborating process 

 to qualify these buds to produce fruit. 



If this work be done neatly, the tree will 

 show itself to great advantage the following 

 season, and so on in continuation from year 

 to year, as long as it is well attended to, 

 and will supply you with abundance of the 

 best and handsomest fruit. 



But, if your espalier is allowed to run 

 wild, or is carelessly pruned, it will be 

 almost always an unpleasant object and 

 an unprofitable member of your pomonal 

 family. 



The foregoing is the manner which I 

 have practiced on my trees, trained on the 

 Forsyth principle ; [on trees treated ac- 

 cording to the French rule a different course 

 is necessary.] 



Of the latter of these methods I shall now 

 speak only so far as becomes necessary in 

 explaining my mode of uniting on the same 

 wall, by alternately planiing and training 

 frees on the French and English modes. 



within eight or ten feet of each other, with- 

 out interfering. 



I have now more than one half of a mile 

 of wall, fence, and open trellis, on which 

 trees are trained, including the youngest 

 trees pruned for this mode of culture up to 

 those that have attained their full height 

 and width. 



The Forsyth trees of large size, arc plant- 

 ed from sixteen to eighteen feet apart, and 

 in the centre between them there are trees 

 trained on the French principle, with a view 

 to fill up the whole space on the trellis, from 

 bottom to top, in the shortest time possible. 



Now as it is best to create only three 

 branches annually on your Forsyth trees, 

 with a view to have your tree fruited from 

 bottom to top ; viz., two laterals and the one 

 leader or upright, it takes a number of 

 years to complete a tree on this principle, 

 even to the height of eight feet only, for a 

 foot or fifteen inches is the greatest distance 

 allowed between the branches of trees on 

 which the largest sized pears are raised, 

 and eight to ten inches for the smaller 

 sized pears ; the lowest branches being 

 within a foot or ten inches of the ground. 



A tree therefore that has seven or eight 

 branches in height, will be seven or eight 

 years old as a wall-tree or espalier. These 

 lateral branches must not be trained exactly 

 level on the wall or trellis, but they should 

 be a little elevated, so as to hav? the end 

 of ihe branch a little higher than the base 

 or insertion, in order that when it has at 

 tained its full length of eight or nine feet, 

 it may be three or four inches higher at the 

 end than at the base. 



The trees trained on the French princi- 

 ple, that is on two main branches elevated 

 to an angle of about 45^, will grow so much 

 faster than the Forsyth, that they will be 

 at the top of the wall, before the others are 



