PRUNING AND TRAINING. 13 Y 



growth is not permitted to shoot away too slender. And 

 the same is true of the upward growth of the central stem : 

 if it is allowed to push upward ad libitum, in many instan- 

 ces buds will be wanting. In some instances, a branch may 

 require a stay to hold it for a few weeks in the desired po- 

 sition. For this purpose pieces of lath may be secured to 

 other branches first; then the perverse branch can be tied 

 to the lath. It should be remembered that all the train- 

 ing alluded to should be performed during the growing sea- 

 son. By watching the first development of the buds, it 

 will be an easy task to train the young and tender twig in 

 the desired direction. But let a twig grow at random for 

 a few weeks, and the trainer will need the aid of numerous 

 stays to hold the branches and sub-branches in the desired 

 position. The foregoing suggestions are particularly appli- 

 cable to young trees that have sprung from the seed, where 

 they are to grow, or to any young tree which has not de- 

 veloped any branches. 



Training Nursery-trees. There are two ways of train- 

 ing nursery-trees with a fan-shaped head, one of which is 

 to remove the entire top when the tree is transplanted, and 

 train it as directed in the preceding paragraph, as the new 

 shoots push out from the stub of the tree; and another 

 way is, to tie, or secure by pieces of leather, horizontal sticks 

 for stays, extending across the top already formed. Then 

 let the branches be spread out and secured by loops of leath- 

 er put around the branches, and the ends fastened with nails 

 to the stays. We once spread out the branches of an ap- 

 ple-tree twelve feet high, forming a fan-shaped head, fast- 

 ening them to horizontal stays, and completed a satisfactory 

 job. Some of the branches on the west side had to be re- 

 moved entirely, and some of the vacant spaces on the upper 

 side of the remaining limbs had to be filled by inserting 

 cions by side-grafting. (See Fig. 5, p. 29.) 



