TRAINING. 



345 



plants to get are those known as " maidens" i.e., erect growing trees 

 about a year from the bud or graft. These can be readily trained 

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

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

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

 equably through the plant, drawn on by the rising shoot at its end. 

 To allow gross shoots to arise at any other parts of the tree is to spoil 

 any prospect of success. If the tree does not break regularly into 

 buds, it must be forced to improve by making incisions 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 cut in immediately ; 

 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 when the 

 shoot is checked. Pinch at five or six 

 leaves, as the object is not to have a mere 

 stick for the 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 

 vigour, in another encourage it. About 

 three general stoppings during the summer ^ 

 will suffice, but at all times when a strong ? 

 soft " water shoot 1 ' shows itself well above g* 

 the mass of fruitful ones, it should be 

 pinched in, though not too closely. I have 

 even in nurseries seen things called " cor- 

 dons" 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 public against 

 taking such things as examples, or the 

 opinions of their managers as to the merits 

 of the cordon system. 



"As the paradise keeps its roots quite 

 near the surface of the ground, spreading 

 an inch or two of half-decomposed manure 

 over the garden, or in gardening language, 

 mulching it, could not fail to be beneficial." 



