PRUNING AND TRAINING IN GENERAL. 185 



that preserves the flower from sun and rain is equally agree- 

 able to ourselves when inspecting their gorgeous colours and 

 exquisite forms. 



PRUisrmG AND TRAmi^a m gei^eral. 



Wallfruit-trees and Espaliers. — Many gardeners have 

 said that great evils arise from being afraid of using the 

 knife ; but it is possible to be too fond of it, and certain it is, 

 that by too free a use of it much time is lost ; and the study 

 of this branch is almost the principal, and at any rate one of 

 the principal, objects of a good practitioner. The knife is, 

 perhaps, most freely used in cutting back fruit-trees. When 

 grafted or budded, and grown one year, we have generally 

 a long straight shoot. See two men, equally clever in their 

 vocation, treating one of these maiden trees — for such they 

 are called at one year old : one cuts it down to three eyes, the 

 other bends it down to as near a horizontal jDosition as he 

 can, and does not cut at all ; he lets all the buds that he 

 wants grow, and rubs the others off before they fairly start, 

 consequently he has half a tree almost immediately ; but as 

 he wants the other half, he allows the bud nearest the bend 

 or trunk of the tree, as it were, to grow up, and rubs the 

 others off all along for some distance, to give the leading one 

 more vigour ; at the end of the second year he has a tall well- 

 gro"wn rod to bend down horizontally on the other side. He 

 holds this doctrine : — it is reasonable to suppose that the less 

 wood you lose, the more vigour there must be in the branches 

 you save, and that disbudding is a much more natural way of 

 preventing useless branches than letting them grow first and 

 cutting them off afterwards. 



The two trees, under different treatment, exhibit this pecu- 

 liarity. The one which was cut back has three branches, 

 moderately strong ; but, for regular training, it requires to be 

 cut back once more all the branches to three eyes, which will 

 produce nine branches for the next year, of nearly equal 

 strength, but not so strong as before, on account of the greater 

 number. In the one merely bent down, and all the useless 

 buds rubbed off before they took anything from the tree, the 

 vigour of the tree is only expended on the portion required 

 to be grown ; and this treatment will have many advocates, 

 because, among other objects, with the amateur gardener 



