APPLES TRAINING. s 



und with manure spread on the surface as far as the roots extend, or a little more, the tree 

 will flourish. It need not be pruned until March, but should be secured to a stake to prevent 

 the stem being twisted by the wind. If this is allowed, a hole is made in soft weather, 

 the air and frost enter, and fresh root action is arrested. The rains wash the virtues of 

 the manure into the soil, and encourage the production of surface roots. These are a 

 characteristic of trees on the dwarf stock and conducive to fruitfulness. During mild 

 weather after the middle of February and not later than early March the side shoot (n) 

 is cut back to one eye or bud (</), and the upright to two buds (r\ whereby nearly a 

 year's growth is at one stroke cut away. It did not occur in A, page 2. Why in D? 

 Because the roots of the tree A were not broken or seriously curtailed, and replanting 

 was done quickly and well. Digging up a tree roughly, and conveying it from a 

 nursery to a garden by road or railway makes all the difference, for it is not possible 

 to transplant a tree, with the roots much diminished, and good growth follow if the 

 parts above ground are not correspondingly shortened, and the more such a tree is cut 

 back the stronger will be the resulting growth. Planted early in the autumn whilst 

 the ground is warm, the tree will at once push forth fresh rootlets, and good growth 

 may be expected in the following season The tree F is intended to represent the 

 counterfeit of Z>, received and planted with its roots broken, and sunk some inches 

 deeper than they were in the nursery, as if to induce them to strike into the subsoil 

 as quickly as possible. 



That is entirely wrong. The top is shortened a little, and the side growth also. 

 The leader (s) is cut off where shown. This gives rise to the growths #, u, and v ; the 

 side growth cut to w, giving rise to the shoots x and ^, the remaining buds lying 

 dormant. What is the result ? a one-sided, top-heavy tree, which is no credit to the 

 cultivator. How can this bad tree be made into a good one ? The desirable change 

 can be effected by cutting it boldly back to z, and the side growth to , the following 

 season; also replanting and spreading out the roots just under the surface, after trimming 

 off the broken parts as in E. Though a year is lost in the operation, it is the quickest 

 method of restoring a wrongly planted and mismanaged tree. 



G is the first growth of E after pruning, namely an upright shoot (b) and a short 

 stubby side shoot a spur (c), and the tree has emitted roots freely. The roots have 

 increased near the surface (d), thereby showing their appreciation of the manurial 

 dressing ; the growth should be secured to a stake with a soft ligature against damage 

 <'rom wind, In the autumn after the leaves fall, the stem is headed back to e, in 



