130 



GARDEN JIANAGEMENT. 



their age and some at another, cease to assimilate themselves with the stocks 

 upon which they have been worked. This is to be seen by a thickening of the 

 tree just about the place where it has been worked. This thickening, which in 

 some parts of the country is called a burr, is always to be regarded as an effort 



of nature to throw out new roots and 

 preserve life, and should be treated 

 accordingly. If the tree has originally 

 been worked, and the burr consequently 

 shows itself at some distance above the 

 groimd, a large box should be provided, 

 and placed round the burr, in such a 

 way that it may contain a quantity of 

 soil, into which the tree can strike out 

 its new roots. This soil should be a 

 light loam, and always kept moist. la 

 the second or third year, new roots will 

 have been formed, and the tree may 

 safely be separated by a saw from the 

 old stock, and let down into the earth 

 beneath. When the tree has been 

 worked close to the surface, a place 

 about a yard square may easily be built 

 up with bricks or tUes, and filled with 

 light soil a few inches over the burr, 

 to receive the new roots. In this way 

 the writer has jDreserved two small 

 trees of the Stm-mer pippin, which he 

 found fast dwindling away, the stocks on which they were worked not having 

 power to sustain them. By a somewhat similar process, the healthy branch, 

 i, of a favourite tree may be preserved by layering it in a box or pot, a, as 

 in the engraving. 



250. This is one mode of treatment which our correspondent D. furnishes 

 us with ; another, whose object is to utilize the roots and stem of the old tree, 

 are also connected with the operations under consideration. 



29 r. The final cause of the languishing state of these trees being the absence 

 •of vigorous young shoots and the imperfect organization of the cambium and 

 liber, and, finally, the abortion of its root-fibres in consequence, the tree can 

 only be restored to health by the production of more healthy and vigorous 

 organs ; and this may be done by concentrating the whole energy of the tree 

 on certain points. This is done by amputating the principal bi-anches, a 

 {see the engraving at the head of this chapter), about seven or eight inches 

 from their base at c, the branches b being left entire for the present, the 

 amputations being so made that the branches left are not required to cai-ry 

 out the new system of training to be adopted, passing, in ail cases, the four 

 ■largest branches. These branches ai'e retained for the present, it being yet 



