158 THE NURSERY. 



character of the tree is, a stout stem is necessary ; and, 

 although the measures taken to obtain this seem, to re- 

 quire, in some cases, a loss of time, still there is a gain in 

 the end ; for trees allowed to form heads before the stems 

 are amply sufficient to support them, require a great deal 

 of extra care after planting out, and a course of shorten- 

 ing back, that offsets the temporary advantage of forming 

 the head a year sooner. This holds good in all cases. 

 The mode of forming the heads of dwarf bushes is simi- 

 lar to that described for standards. 



^Espalier Trees. These have a few advantages peculiar 

 to themselves, which will be explained under the head 

 of " the selection of trees for the garden." 



To form espaliers, yearling trees are usually chosen, 

 planted in the place where they are to remain, and cut 

 back to within four or five buds of the stocks, as at D, 

 fig. 91 ; these buds break and produce shoots, from which 

 the strongest are chosen to form the arms, and the others 

 are rubbed off. 



The peach grows so vigorously that, if the growing 

 bud be checked when a foot high, it will produce side 

 shoots, from which two may be selected from the main 

 branches of the espalier, and thus a year will be saved. 

 Another way is to insert two buds, one on each side of 

 the stock. Very nice espalier trees may be grown in 

 the form of a pyramid, with a main stem and lateral 

 branches, the lowest being the longest. I have seen the 

 pear grown in this form very successfully. Trees for this 

 form require the same management as pyramids, except 

 that the branches should be placed opposite on two sides. 

 This brings us to the end of the third year, and the trees 

 are now two years old from the bud. At this age we 

 take it for granted that ,all trees on dwarf stocks for pyra- 

 mids, dwarfs, and espaliers, and all standards even, of 

 the peach, apricot, and nectarine, and, in most cases, the 

 cherry and plum, will be finally planted out. Standard 



