322 



TRAINING. 



Fig. 270. 



Fig. 271. 



Spiral training, 

 plan. 



Spiral training^ 

 first stage. 



Fig. 272. 



for supporting them, in a circle about the root, as in fig. 271, the centre 

 dot marking the root, and the others the rods. Each branch is then 

 to be brought down, and being 

 fixed to the rod near its base, the 

 branch is to be carried round in a 

 spiral manner, on such an elevation 

 as will form an inclination of about 

 fifteen degrees, and each branch is 

 to be fixed in the same manner, 

 one after another ; thus all will 

 move in the same direction, one 

 above another, like so many cork- 

 screws following in the same course, as shown in 

 fig. 272. As from this position of the branches 

 the point-bud of each leader will present the most 

 vertical channel for the sap, the strongest shoot will form there, 

 and thus afford the means of continuing the leaders to a great height 

 and for a great length of time, without crossing or obstructing each 

 other, or throwing out useless collaterals ; at the same time, by the 

 depressed position of the leading branches, enough 

 sap will be pushed out on their sides to form and 

 maintain vigorous fruiting spurs 1 . As trees trained in 

 this manner need never exceed the bounds allotted 

 them on a border or bed, a greater number of trees 

 may be planted, and a greater quantity of fruit 

 produced, in a given space, than can be the case 

 when they are trained in any other manner. But 

 as pear and apple-trees on free stocks may be found 

 to grow too rude and large after a few years, those 

 best answer which are grafted on dwarf-growing 

 stocks; that is, pears on quince stocks, and apples 

 on paradise stocks. However, to keep dwarf trees 

 from growing too luxuriant and rude, it is a good 

 practice to take them up and root-prune them every three or four years. 

 Standards in the open garden are, in France, sometimes trained with 

 heads in similar shapes to those we have mentioned as adopted for 

 dwarfs; but those in most general use, where the natural form is 

 departed from, are the spurring-in system, the conical or pyramidal 

 system, to either of which may be applied the quenouille system ; a 

 term which is sometimes applied to the distaff or conical form of the 

 tree, and sometimes to the mode of tying down the current year's 

 shoots, like the fibres of flax on a distaff , so as to stagnate in them the 

 returning sap. Trees trained in any of these manners are generally 

 grafted on dwarfing stocks, so as to keep their growths within moderate 

 bounds. 



The Spurring-in System. Choose a tree that has a leading shoot in 

 an upright direction, fig. 273, a ; having planted it, shorten the side 

 shoot, leaving only two or three buds, and shorten also the leading 

 shoot, according to its strength, so that no more buds may be left on 



Spiral training, 

 elevation. 



