TRAINING. 73 
always be used with caution. A trained tree is a most unnatural 
object; and whatever care may be taken of it, there can be no dount 
that training shortens its life by many years. The principal object 
of training is to produce from a certain number of branches a greater 
quantity of fruit or flowers than would grow on them if the plant 
were left in its natural state; and this is effected by spreading and 
bending the branches, so as to form numerous depositions of the re- 
turning sap, aided, where the plant is trained against the wall, by 
the shelter and reflected heat which the wall affords. Thus the 
points to be attended to by the gardener in training, are, the covering 
of the wall, so that no part of it may be lost; the bending of the 
branches backwards and forwards, so that they may form numerous 
deposits of the returning sap; and the full exposure of the fruit-bear- 
ing branches to the sun and air. For these purposes the gardener 
shortens the long shoots, to make them throw out side-branches, 
with which he covers his walls, never suffering them to cross each 
other, but letting each be as much exposed to the influence of the air 
and light as is consistent with a necessary quantity of leaves; and 
he bends them in different directions to throw them into fruit. These 
general principles are common to all fruit-trees, but of course they 
must be modified to suit the habits of the different kinds. Thus, for 
example, some trees, such as the fig and the pomegranate, only bear 
on the extremities of their shoots; and, consequently, if their shoots 
were continually shortened, these trees would never bear at all; other 
wees, such as the apple and the pear, bear their fruit on short pro- 
jecting branches, called spurs; and others at intervals on nearly all 
the branches, and close to the wall. All these habits should be 
known to the gardener, and the modes of training adopted which 
will be suitable to each. Training flowers should also be regulated 
by a knowledge of the habits of the plants; but it consists principally 
in checking their over-luxuriance of growth, and tying them to stakes 
or wooden frames. In all kinds of training, neatness is essentially 
requisite, and any departure from it is exceedingly offensive. Where 
the hand of art is so evident as it is in training, we require excessive 
neatness to make us amends for the loss of the graceful luxuriance of 
aature. 
The operation of training against a wall is performed by the aid of 
nails and shreds; the shreds being narrow oblong pieces of list or 
cloth, put round the branches, and attached to the wall by nails 
G 
Pay 
