254 PRUNING. 



the sun and air freely amongst them. When the tree is 

 five or six years old, if it grows too vigorously, requiring 

 more space than can be given it, the larger roots may be 

 shortened in July or August, or in the winter. This and 

 the pyramid, and the dwarf standard, with stems two feet 

 high, are the most eligible garden forms for the cherry.* 



This dwarf or bush form is probably the most advan- 

 tageous one in which the cherry can be successfully grown 

 in all of the Western and North-western States. Where 

 the summers are hot and the air often very dry, the foli- 

 age protects the main stems ; and where snows are deep, 

 the tree is in this form often protected from cold and the 

 fruit buds saved. 



The dwarf standard is treated precisely as the dwarf, 

 and differs from it only in having two feet instead of six 

 or eight inches of stem. In pruning and training the 

 cherry, it should always be borne in mind that when 

 laro;e branches are removed, it is liable to suffer from the 

 gum, and therefore the regulation of the shoots should 

 be carefully attended to in summer, that amputations of 

 woody parts may be avoided as far as possible. When it 

 is necessary, however, the cut surface heals more rapidly 

 and surely when made in the summer, during the growing 

 season. 



SECTION 4. PRUNING AND MANAGEMENT OF THE PEACH. 



The peach is universally regarded as the most delicious 

 fruit of our climate, and ranks in importance for orchard 

 culture, next to the apple and the pear. Nowhere in the 

 world is it produced in such quantities, and with so little 



*Mr. Rivers states in his '"Miniature Fruit Garden" that he has a 

 plant of the late Duke Cherry ten years old that never was root-pruned, and 

 yet is a small prolific tree, five feet in night, and the branches the same in 

 diameter. We have in our specimen grounds trees of several dukes and 

 morellos, six years old, on mahaleb stocks, uot over four or five feet 

 high, and pictures of iruiU'ulness. 



