CHAP. VI VILLA GAEDENINCt 269 



dance of air ; the only other thing stipiUated for is water, which 

 should be given copiously in spring and summer if the weather is 

 dry. If the fruit is to be taken from young wood, the disbudder 

 must take note of it, and leave healthy shoots to fill up the vacant 

 spaces on the walls. Disbudding is an operation easy enough to 

 the experienced practical man, because he knows what he wants 

 and the best and more direct way to obtain it ; but the mind of the 

 tyro is often painfully exercised in the selection of the buds Avhich 

 are to remain. A trained eye and hand grasps the situation 

 at once, takes stock of the wall space to be covered, and leaves 

 a certain number of young shoots to fill up the space, the remain- 

 der — except the leader — to be gradually removed. The majority 

 of cultivators take the shoots from the upper and lower sides 

 of the main shoots indiscriminately, wherever the best eye can be 

 obtained, but there is some advantage in working on the Hamil- 

 tonian system, which is briefly this : All tlie bearing shoots spring 

 from and are trained on the upper side of the main branches. This 

 is simple enough, and all the disbudder has to do is to select the 

 best bud he can find at the bottom of each bearing branch on the 

 upper side, and gradually remove all the others except the leader. 

 The chief advantage of this system lies in its clearness and sim- 

 l^licity, and there is less margin left for a blunderer to make 

 mistakes. Very few cultivators disbud Apricots and Plums on 

 the same lines laid down for the Peach, though they would succeed 

 if so treated. The usual plan is to go over the trees when they 

 break, and rub off a few buds where they are too crowded, taking 

 of course the weakest. As the season advances and the young 

 wood has made, say, six leaves, all the shoots except those required 

 for filling up vacancies on the walls shoidd be pinched back to 

 three leaves ; and all lateral growth diuing the season must be 

 pinched back to one leaf The young shoots should be nailed 

 in or secured to the wall in some other way to keep them safe 

 from wind. 



Thinning the Fruit. — In good seasons when all the blossoms 

 set there woidd be too heavy a load for the tree to bear, no matter 

 how well it may be fed. I have proved often enough that if we 

 mulch and water with liquid manure from the stoning period 

 onward till the fruit begins to ripen, a tree in good health will 

 carry an immense load; but a tree, unaided, can only carry a 

 limited weight of frnit ; and if too many apricots are left on they 

 must of coiu-se be small. If the tree's powers are imdidy ex- 

 hausted the branches may die ofi" from debihty, or its health and 

 vigour may sufter in other ways. Assuming that a frmt tree — 

 an Apricot for instance — can only carry safely a given weight of 



