288 



'I'lIE PARKS AND GARDENS OF TARIS. [Chap. XVIII. 



called a secateur, for taking tliem off in order not to injure tlie 

 stools; later on they may be simply broken off. Immediately 

 after this operation the stools should be covered over with earth. 

 They will afford young plants for a long time — from five to ten 

 years, according to the care taken of them — and the suckers thus 

 obtained will serve for grafting in the nursery. 



" The ground which is to receive them should be well dug 

 and the trees then planted in lines two feet apart, or a little more. 

 They should be placed sixteen or twenty inches apart and three 

 or four inches deep. The operation of planting in beds requires 

 great care. The young plants should be well trimmed both at 

 top and bottom, so as to give the branches a uniform length of 



sixteen inches, and the 

 ground hoed frequently 

 until the month of 

 August, with the double 

 object of destroying 

 weeds and keeping the 

 ground open. At this 

 period the young plants 

 are ready for budding, 

 each subject receiving a 

 bud at about four inches 

 above the surface of the 

 ground. Immediately 

 afterwards, particularly 

 in dry seasons, it will 

 be well to give the ground a good hoeing to help to keep it 

 moist. 



" During the winter the plant should be cut down to within 

 three inches above the bud, and all the remaining shoots should 

 be stripped off. The following spring a number of small shoots 

 will make their appearance all over the pruned plant. When 

 they have reached a length of an inch or an inch and a half, tliey 

 should be pinched down to favour the growth of the graft, which 

 will have grown as large as the other buds. The bud which has 

 not been pinched will naturally soon exceed in size those which 

 have been. Fi'om this time it will attain sufficient strength to 

 absorb the sap, and it will bo necessary to remove all the other 



Crafting by approach, to unite the points of Horizontal 

 Cordons. The apex of each cordon is cut at A, when 

 firmly united to its neighbour (^Du Breuil). 



