PRUNING WALLFRUIT-TREES AND ESPALIERS. 193 



this system, the branches will, in time, occupy the whole 

 neight of the wall, and by avoiding that stimulating soil 

 which is too frequently prepared for fruit-borders, the trees 

 Avill be found much more manageable, and much sooner 

 prolific. 



It is a very common practice, and we have seen it a good 

 deal in market gardens, to let the trees grow pretty nearly as 

 they will, to lay in the branches as close to each other as they 

 will do well, but as they all start from one common centre, as 

 it were, they necessarily form iuto a fan shape. There is 

 nothing to condemn in this, because every day's practice 

 shows good crops. The only rule that seems to be observed 

 is, to lay in every winter as much bearing wood as can be 

 accommodated, and to cut away weakly shoots, and all others 

 that are not wanted, or, in other words, that there is no room 

 for. Certainly, if any class of men have to find out the least 

 troublesome and the most profitable mode of culture, it is the 

 market gardener, and, therefore, however careless they may 

 seem, there is the strongest motive for doing everything with 

 the least trouble, and making everything produce the best 

 crop. However, in private gardens, where this is not so much 

 studied as neatness and moderate returns, we may be allowed 

 to be more particular, though there has always been a good 

 deal too much importance attached to certain details, and the 

 works which have treated of pruning and training have, one 

 and all, so far as we have read, laid down rules as if no other 

 would answer, and made simple operations appear so formid- 

 able, that many a man has been deterred from undertaking 

 what, after all that can be said and done, is but a simple 

 affair. The general rules for pruning and training will take 

 us through nearly all the waUfruit-trees and espaliers, for the 

 only difference between the one and the other is, that the 

 espalier is in a frame instead of a wall ; but there are some 

 Uttle differences in the detail with fig-trees and grape-vines ; 

 the former we shall notice here. The vine out of doors, and 

 under glass, will be a separate article. 



Figs. — The fig produces its fruit at the ends of branches, 

 and has generally two crops a-year ; though, in this country, 

 the tree requires a wall, and unless protected through the 

 winter, the crop, which is always on when the leaves fall, will 

 perish. There are two or three very simple rules for pruning 

 and training the fig. There must be no shortening of 



