FRUIT-PRUNING 137 



thorns and the harm they do whilst he interrupts 

 work to mop his brow. 



When the rose branches have all been put back, 

 properly trained so that one does not cross another, 

 neatly tied to the tall uprights, and their roots 

 have had a rich top dressing, yet more important 

 work must be done. 



There are many hundred fruit trees planted in 

 regular lines from north to south down the market- 

 garden plots, with ample room for vegetables to 

 grow between them, and in the flower garden there 

 are others, irregularly dotted about amongst 

 flowering shrubs upon the terraces. These have to 

 be pruned and it must be carefully done, for they 

 are a good paying crop and bring in some ^40 a 

 year or more towards the receipts of the College. 



An expert undertakes this work and first-year 

 students are allowed to stand in small groups of 

 two and three to watch how he does it. By such 

 means they learn the theory of pruning, but it is 

 only in their second year of experience that they 

 are allowed to put this into practice, and so a few 

 trees only are set apart for them to experiment 

 upon. 



In the intervals of watching they pick up all the 

 prunings, in order that these should not lie about 

 untidily on the land, forming as they often do 

 secret hiding-places for insect pests. Our trees 

 have grown so much since first they were planted 

 that it needs the occasional use of a small saw to 

 cut off the thickest branches. After this has been 

 done, a student looks over each tree and with a 

 knife makes smooth any of the jagged bits of wood 



