258 PRUNING. 



orchards die after bearing a few crops, and plant new 

 ones to take their place. In the case of garden trees, or 

 the family orchard, the case is different, and careful pru- 

 ning will pay. 



Root Pruning. In gardens where the soil is rich, and 

 trees very full of vigor, disposed to grow too much and 

 bear too little, root pruning should be practised once in 

 two or three years the first lightly, removing only the 

 ends of the large feeding roots. The safest time to do it 

 is between the fall of the leaf and the opening of spring. 

 Vegetation in the peach seldom becomes sufficiently inac- 

 tive during the growing season, to enable the roots to be 

 pruned with safety. 



The Peach in the form of a Vase. Among all the 

 forms in which trees are conducted, this is, when well 

 done, one of the most graceful. 



It consists of a short stem, two to five feet, according to 

 fancy, with a head composed of three or four main branches, 

 and two or three times that number of secondary branches, 

 all trained, by means of light stakes at first, and after- 

 wards wire or wooden hoops, in the form of a vase or 

 goblet. The branches are arranged in a circle, with bear- 

 ing shoots filling up the spaces. No shoots are permit- 

 ted either in the interior or in front, that is, projecting 

 from the exterior surface of the goblet. 



The most beautiful trees of this form are to be seen in 

 the gardens of the Luxembourg, at Paris, and elsewhere 

 in France. 



Mr. Louis Gaudry, who has a very pretty little planta- 

 tion in Paris, and who has published a small work on 

 pruning and training trees, gives the annexed cut as a rep- 

 resentation of one of his vase peach-trees of eight years' 

 growth (fig. 122). The following is the substance of his 

 mode of conducting them. 



First Pruning. The stem of the yearling tree is cut 

 back to the point at which it is desired to commence the 



