202 PRACTICAL GAEDENING. 



about the righ.t way when youiig. It has to be kept in view 

 that the main object is fine fruit ; and this can only be pro- 

 duced by abundance of hght, sun, and air. Consequently, 

 when the trees are young, they should be cut back, to make 

 them form a sufficient number of branches, pointing outwards 

 all round ; these should not be in each other's w^ay, nor cross, 

 and the centre should be kept free of wood. Currant-trees 

 naturally grow outwards and upwards ; many gooseberry- 

 bushes grow outwards and downwards. The former would 

 form the skeleton of a basket, the latter the skeleton of an 

 umbrella. '\\Tien you have once shaped your skeleton, as it 

 were, to your mind, your winter-pruning is only cutting back 

 all the lateral shoots to a spur or stump, with one growing 

 bud ; so that, after pruning, your tree or bush is the same 

 kind of skeleton ; but the ends of the branches are allowed 

 to grow and remain longer every year, until they occupy all 

 the room you can spare, when these may be shortened, or 

 topped, as it is called, to your mind. When the end of a 

 braiich is not healthy, you may cut that branch back to the 

 first healthy shoot, which will become the growing end of 

 your branch. If, during the formation of your bush, you 

 find two branches too far off", while the rest are pretty well 

 formed, allow one of the lateral shoots that grow onwards to 

 form a new branch to occupy the vacant place between them ; 

 and when a branch becomes unhealthy, cut it back to a 

 healthy part, even if it be close to the base ; and from the 

 new wood that breaks out, select the strongest, and take 

 away the others, before they make any growth worth notice, 

 so that all the strength may be thro\vn into the one shoot 

 selected. By cutting back branches that are getting old or 

 decayed, we may always renew the buph ; but in such case 

 there would be a forest of new shoots, and they should all be 

 removed but those wanted to form the new branches. At 

 the first planting of currant and gooseberry bushes, we 

 should take care to remove all the shoots but those which are 

 in a right direction ; and if they, are not well-formed, cut 

 back so freely that the next year's shoots shall give you aU 

 you want ; for every eye will give a shoot, and some shoots 

 will come from parts where the eyes are not even perceptible. 

 Perhaps the best way to form handsome bushes is to cut 

 away all but the branches which grow outwards ; and if 

 there be only three oi four of those, take the ends off to 



