P R U 



P R U 



niav be occasionallv used, and mav be practised 

 as the stocks occur in proper growth! See. whip- 

 grafting is the most proper in the most part, in 

 this method of raising them : the budding is 

 performed in the common way : the grafting 

 should be done in the spring, as February and 

 March, and the budding in summer, as June 

 or July : the dwarf's should be grafted or budded 

 near the ground, and the half and full standards 

 from three to six feet high : the grafted trees 

 shoot the same year, and the budded ones the 

 spring following. 



When the first shoots from the graft or bud 

 are a year old, those of the dwarf sorts for 

 walls, &c. must be shortened down in March 

 or beginning of April, to five, six, or eight 

 inches long, according to their strength; to 

 procure lateral shoots to form the head, and 

 the standards may be shortened or left entire as 

 the case requires : when wanted to form a 

 spreading head, the first shoots should be short- 

 ened to force out lower branches ; after this, 

 the branches of the dwarfs and standards remain 

 mostly at their full length ; and while the trees 

 continue in the nursery, those designed for 

 walls, &c. should be trained to stakes, in a pro- 

 per position, occasionally pinching or pruning 

 young shoots of the year early in summer, 

 down to a few eyes or buds where necessary, 

 in order to procure a production of lateral 

 branches the same season, to train in for a fur- 

 ther supply of young wood, to increase the ex- 

 pansion of the branches as soon as possible to 

 continue entire. 



When the trees have from one or two to five 

 or six years' growth thev are proper for being fi- 

 nally planted out : though, if planted when their 

 heads are not more than two or three years old, 

 they succeed much better than larger trees. Mr. 

 Forsyth advises the same attention in choosing 

 these trees, as for apricots, peaches, and nec- 

 tarines, and that they should be headed down the 

 first year. 



The season for planting them out is any time 

 in open weather, from The end of October or 

 beginning of November till March. 



The wall and espalier trees should be planted 

 eighteen or twenty feet distant; and where the 

 walls are tolerably high, a half or a full standard 

 may be planted in the spaces between the dwarfs, 

 that while these cover the bottom and middle, 

 the standards may cover the upper part of the wall. 



When those planted against walls or espaliers 

 were planted when only one year old from the 

 grafting, &c. with the first shoot from the graft 

 or bud entire, they should be pruned short in 

 March or beginning of April, to furnish lateral 

 branches ; but if they were headed in the nur- 

 sery, and horizontal branches obtained, they 



must not be shortened afterwards, except occa- 

 sionally in panicular shoots to fill a vacancy : as 

 the fruit-spurs first rise towards the upper end of 

 the branches, a general shortening would not 

 only cut away the tirst fruitful parts, but force 

 out a great deal of useless wood. The necessary 

 branches, arising every year after the first head- 

 ing down, should be trained horizontally at full 

 length, five or six inches asunder; and where 

 wood is wanted some adjacent young shoot may 

 be pinched in May or early in June, or shortened 

 in the spring fallowing, when it will push forth 

 two or three laterals; being careful to retrench 

 all fore-right and other irregular-placed shoots, 

 and continue training the regular branches still at 

 full length at equal distances, till they have fill- 

 ed the proper space of walling or espalier. 



In trese trees the bearing-wood does not want 

 renewing annually, the same branches continu- 

 ing bearing several years, and only want renew- 

 ing with young wood occasionally, as any branch 

 becomes barren or an ill bearer, except in the 

 Morello, which generally bears the most abun- 

 dantly in the year-old young wood : a general 

 successional supply of each year's shoots should 

 therefore be retained for successional bearers. 



The trees in all the sorts should be pruned 

 twice every year; a summer pruning being given 

 early in the season, to retrench all the super- 

 fluous shoots soon after they are produced, like- 

 wise all fore-right and other ill-placed shoots, 

 and rank wood, as soon as possible ; and to 

 pinch shoots where wood is wanted, so as there 

 may be as little pruning as possible upon the 

 older wood, w hich is apt to gum by much cut- 

 ting ; retaining, however, a general moderate 

 supply of the regular-placed shoots to choose 

 from in the winter pruning, training the whole 

 at full length: and in the winter pruning, ex- 

 amining the general branches, old and young, 

 both in the former trained bearers, and the re- 

 tained shoots of the preceding summer, retaining 

 all the fruitful and regular placed former trained 

 branches ; and if, among these, any irregularity, 

 disorderly or improper growths occur, the whole 

 should be reformed by proper occasional pruning. 

 In old trees, as well as others, it is proper to 

 retrench any worn-out or declined naked 

 branches, which are destitute of bearing-wood', 

 or fruitful spurs, and to cut out all decayed 

 wood ; retaining a plentiful succession of last 

 summer's young wood, in proper places, where 

 necessary, to supply the place of any unservice- 

 able old wood now retrenched ; and at the 

 same time cutting out all superfluous, or over- 

 abundant, and other unnecessary shoots re- 

 served last summer, not now wanted, leaving 

 only some well-placed ones, in any vacant spaevs, 

 or some in particular parts, to train in between 



