178 



JVotcs and Gleanings. 



trees should never be fixed down to wire or wall immediately after being planted, 

 but allowed to grow erect during the winter months, and until the sap is moving 

 in them, when they may be tied down. Some allow them to grow erect a year 

 in position before tying them down. They should in all cases be allowed to 

 settle well into the ground before being tied to anything. For general plantings 

 the best and cheapest kinds of plants to get are those known as " maidens," 

 i. e., erect-growing trees about a year from the bud or graft. These can be read- 

 ily trained down to the wire, or to the wall in spring. In training the young 

 tree, the point with its young growing shoot of the current year should always 

 be allowed to grow somewhat erect, so that the sap will flow equablv through 

 the plant, drawn on by the rising shoot at its end. To allow gross shoots to 

 rise at any other part3 of the tree is to spoil all prospect of success. If the tree 

 does not break regularly into buds, it must be forced to improve, by making incis- 

 ions before dormant eyes. 



" ' A chief point is not to pinch too closely or too soon. The first stopping of 

 the year is the most important one, and the first shoots should not be pinched in 

 too soon, but when the wood at their base is a little firm, so that the lower eyes 

 at the bases of the leaves may not break soon after the operation. Stop the 

 shoot at five or si.x leaves, as the object is, not to have a mere stick for the 



SIMPLE HORIZONTAL CORDON, THE. TREES UNITED BY APPROACH GRAFTING. 



cordon, but a dense bushy array of fruit spurs quite a foot or more in diameter, 

 when the leaves are on in summer. All the after pinching of the year may be 

 shorter, and as the object is to regularly furnish the line, the observant trainer 

 will vary his tactics to secure that end ; in one place he will have to repress 

 vigor, in another, to encourage it. About three general stoppings during the 

 summer will suffice, but at all times when a strong soft " water shoot " shows 

 itself well above the mass of fruitful ones, it should be pinched in, though not too 

 closely. I have, even in nurseries, seen things called "cordons" with every 

 shoot allowed to rise up like a willow wand, utterly neglected, and on the wrong 

 stock ; and I have in other cases seen them so pinched in as to be worthless 

 sticks. Of course success could not be expected under the circumstances ; and 

 I must caution the reader against taking such things as examples of the cordon 

 system, or placing any reliance on the opinions of their producers. 



" ' As the Paradise keeps its roots quite near the surface of the ground, spread- 

 ing an inch or two of half-decomposed manure over the ground, or, in gardening 

 language, mulching it, could not fail to l^e beneficial. The galvanized wire sup- 

 port (No. 14) is neatest and cheapest, and, in fact, the only one that should be 

 used. 



" 'The cordons are usually planted too close together in France. In Decem- 



