242 VILLA. GAEDENIXG part ill 



the mattiug may lacerate the swelling bark and need loosening 

 These are details which, to the thoughtful man, will be self- 

 evident. 



Apple Tkees from Cuttings. — For raising small fertile trees of 

 particidar kinds this is a very expeditious way. I have trees of the 

 Mank's Codlin that were branches of several years' growth when 

 sawn off bearing trees about ten years ago, and no matter how bad 

 the seasons have been they have never failed to bear. I do not 

 think this way of raising Apple trees, especially for small gardens, is 

 appreciated as it ought to be ; and it is not clear to me that a good 

 many sorts of Aj^ples, besides those from which cuttings are usually 

 taken, will not with a little care and patience strike root from 

 old wood i:)lanted in a shaded border. I have at different times 

 planted a lot of cuttings of various kinds of Apples. Old pieces a 

 yard or so long, with thick truncheon-like knobs at the bottom, are 

 the best to plant. They should l)e planted firmly, burying a foot 

 or so of the bottom, treading them in very firmly and middling 

 the surface between the rows to keep the soil steadily moist and 

 at an equable temperature. Apple trees raised from cuttings in 

 this way are fibrous-rooted, and as the trees draw their food from 

 the surface, the foliage, blossoms, and fruit all show a marked 

 improvement owing to their food supply coming from a source 

 more immediately influenced by the sun's warmth. 



Summer Management of Apple Trees. — In the case of 

 young trained trees the chief work will consist in laying in the 

 young wood destined to form the tree, and checking undue growth 

 in all other directions. In good soil I have always been in favour 

 of planting maiden trees. We have thus the direction of their 

 onward progress in our own hands almost from the beginning, 

 which, in point of advantage, is next to propagating our own trees. 

 In the formation of trees on espaliers the bottom pair of branches 

 will get a year's start of the second jDair, and so on till the trellis 

 is covered. Unless this is done the top of the tree would rob 

 and ruin the bottom, from the natm'al tendency which the sap has 

 to ascend in vertical lines. The same rule should be observed in 

 all systems of training, as the same natural laws are in operation. 

 As regards summer pruning, a reckless cutting away of every 

 green twig will do harm, because its tendency is to dwarf and 

 cripple the energies of the tree. At the same time, if this yoimg 

 summer growth is permitted to remain too long unchecked or un- 

 shortened, mischief will accrue from disorganised root-action. The 

 best way to deal with fruit trees in summer is to prune the 

 strongest half of the tree, which will nearly always be the top, 

 first, and the weaker half a fortuiglit or three weeks later. This 



