STARTING THE TRAINING 355 



headed -back, the required number of shoots may 

 be secured in the proper positions. It may even 

 be important not to select the largest yearlings, 

 for on them the lower buds may be very weak. 

 This is particularly true with peach trees, for in 

 these the lower side buds break the first year, and 

 the nurseryman trims them off into order to get a 

 straight and long -bodied tree. 



How high to leave the trunk and how many 

 branches to take out, depend entirely upon the 

 mode of training which the operator has in mind. 

 I have inserted various extracts which will serve 

 as specimen examples to suggest the general 

 methods of procedure. 



Before undertaking any method of special train- 

 ing, the operator should apprehend the idea that 

 there is no necessary or essential mode for any 

 fruit. The mode of training is diametrically op- 

 posed to the natural habit of the plant, and it 

 is, therefore, a mental and arbitrary ideal. This 

 fact will be apparent if the reader considers that 

 most of the illustrations in the Old World literature 

 of the subject are diagrams, not pictures. The 

 operator works to geometrical figures. He sets a 

 pattern ; and the more nearly the plant approaches 

 this pattern the more satisfactory is the training. 



Some of the common forms in which fruit 

 trees are trained are suggested in the following 

 translation from Bois : * 



*D. Bois, Le Petit Jardin," Paris, 264. 



