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ing clown their apple-trees after the season of 

 drawing for sale is over. Messrs. Gray and 

 Wear have headed a great many of such trees as 

 were formerly thrown to the faggot-pile, and 

 have been amplv recompensed for their trouble. 

 Trees thus headed down, provided the stems be 

 strong, will, he thinks, in the first and second 

 vear,"produce as much fruit as will refund the 

 purchase-money ; besides, a great deal of time 

 will be saved, which would be lost by planting- 

 younger trees : as, where you can procure trees 

 of the above description that have been headed 

 down three or more years, they will be all co- 

 vered with fruit-buds ; and, if carefully taken up 

 and planted in the autumn, if the season proves 

 favourable, they will have a tolerable crop of 

 fruit the first year. Such trees must not be 

 headed down like maiden-trees, but only thin- 

 ned oft' where the branches run across and rub 

 against one another, which should never be suf- 

 fered in these cases. 



He says, he would never recommend training 

 apple-trees as espaliers ; as by doing so the 

 air is kept from the quarters of the garden; and 

 by constant pruning and cutting off all the side- 

 shoots which you cannot tie to the espaliers, 

 you prevent them from bearing, and, moreover, 

 bring on the canker. 



And when the dwarf trees have handsome 

 heads, more and much finer fruit will be gotten, 

 he says, from one of them than from six espa- 

 liers ; at the same time, a free air is admitted to 

 the crops in the quarters, and the constant ex- 

 pense of stakes and labour, in laying the trees to 

 the espaliers is saved. Espaliers may, he ob- 

 serves, be converted into dwarf standards by 

 shortening the branches at different lengths, so 

 as that they may be able to support themselves 

 without the stakes ; but not to shorten them all 

 regularly ; and if cut with judgment, as near to 

 a leading shoot, or an eye, as possible, they will 

 in the course of two years form fme heads, and 

 in the third year bear six times as much fruit as 

 they did in their former state, and of a finer fla- 

 vour. The same method of pruning as already 

 laid down for standard apple-trees is also ap- 

 plicable to espaliers. 



He observes, that " the borders where you 

 make your crossings in gardens should be six or 

 eight feet broad at least, to let the trees spread on 

 each side, at the distance of twelve feet from tree 

 to tree, and they should be well trenched, two 

 feet and a half deep at least. If there should be 

 gravel, or sour clay, it must be taken out, and 

 good mould put in its place ; leaving the ground 

 as rough as possible for the frost and rain to 

 mellow it. When you level the ground it 

 should be done after rain : you may then sow 



some small crops in the borders ; such as lettuce 

 or spinach, or cabbage for transplanting; but let 

 not any of the Brassica tribe come to full growth. 

 Leaving cabbage and brocoli on borders, near 

 fruit-trees, draws the ground very much, fills 

 the borders with insects, and also prevents the 

 sun and air from penetrating into the ground. 

 And when the sun can have free access to the 

 border, it adds much to the flavour of the fruit. 

 If you can spare the ground on the cross-borders 

 in winter, it will be of great service to the trees 

 to ridge it up as loose as you can, and let it lie in 

 that state all winter, to mellow and sweeten. 



Where the soil is strong, he would recom- 

 mend planting of apple-trees that are grafted on 

 Paradise stocks; but if the soil be light, free 

 stocks will do much better: and when the 

 ground is a strong clay or brick-earth, it should 

 be mixed with old lime-rubbish or coal -ashes, 

 street-dung, or sand : but what he uses for the 

 borders against the walls, and which he prefers 

 to every other manure, is a vegetable mould pro- 

 duced from leaves of trees. 



Of this a good coat should be given once in 

 two or three years, which will be sufficient, he 

 thinks, for the borders where the wall-trees 

 stand, and much better than dung, which he by 

 no means approves of for trees, unless it be per- ' 

 fectly rotten and mixed up with mould. 



In respect to grafting old apple-trees, he says, 

 " it frequently happens, that, through some 

 mistake or other, after waiting ten or twelve 

 years for a tree to come into a bearing state, it 

 is found that the fruit is neither fit for the tabic 

 nor kitchen; in such cases they should always 

 be grafted the following spring, observing to 

 graft on the finest and healthiest shoots, and as 

 near as possible to the old graft, and where the 

 cross-shoots break out ; as by so doing you will 

 have some fruit the second year ; and in the 

 third, if properly managed, you will have as 

 much as on a maiden-tree of fifteen years stand- 

 ing : the canker, if any, must be carefully pared 

 oft' the branch, and the scion must be taken 

 from a sound healthy tree. Whenever an inci- 

 sion is made for budding or grafting, from that 

 moment the canker, he savs, begins. He would, 

 therefore, recommend to those employed in bud- 

 ding or grafting, as soon as the incision is made, 

 and the bud or graft inserted, to rub in with the 

 finger, or a brush, some of the Composition be- 

 fore the bass is tied on ; then to cover the bass 

 all over with the Composition as thick as it can 

 be laid on with a brush, working it well in. If 

 this operation be performed in a proper manner, 

 and in a moist season, it will answer every pur- 

 pose, lie says, without applying any grafting- 

 clay : as he has frequently done it, and found it 



