376 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



Clearly if we prune to any one ideal type of tree we can never see 

 the interesting variety of form shown by the varieties of one species, 

 as the Apple and Pear. Keeping to the natural form of each tree, 

 moreover does not in the least prevent thinning of the branches where 

 overcrowded the best way of pruning. 



We have not only to avoid ugly forms of training and pruning, 



but never in the orchard where the true way is to let the tree take 'its 



natural and mature form, should the practice of 



Root Pruning root pruning be allowed. Our orchard trees 



in the Orchard. especially the trees native of Britain like the 



Apple and the Pear are almost forest trees in 



nature and take some years first of all to make their growth and 



then mature it. In gardens for various reasons men try to get 



in artificial ways the fruit that nature gives best at the time of 



maturity, so root pruning was invented, and it may have some use 



in certain soils and in limited gardens, but one would hardly think it 



would enter into people's heads to practise root pruning in the orchard ; 



though the word is a catching one and leads people astray. I have 



several times had the question seriously put to me as to how to root 



prune forest trees a case where all pruning is absurd in any proper 



sense save in the way effected by the forest itself. The trees in the 



orchard should be allowed to come freely to maturity, and in the way 



the years fly this is not a long wait. By planting well chosen 



young trees every year the whole gradually comes into noble bearing, 



and the difference between the naturally grown and laden tree and 



one of the pinched root-pruned ones is great. 



Cider orchards are picturesque in the west of England and in 

 Normandy, and so long as men think any kind of fermented stuff 

 good enough for their blood, cider has on northern 

 Cider Orchards. men the first claim from the beauty of the trees 

 in flower and fruit, and indeed throughout the 

 year. The cider orchard also will allow us to grow naturally- 

 grown trees and those raised from seed. Cider orchards are 

 extremely beautiful, and the trees in them take fine natural forms. 

 They have a charm, too, in the brightness of the fruit, and also 

 one in the lateness of the blooms of some, many of the cider 

 Apples flowering later than the orchard Apples. In some cider 

 orchards near Rouen (Lyons-la-Foret) I saw the finest, tallest, 

 and cleanest trees were raised from seed ; the owner, a far-famed 

 cider grower, told me they were his best trees, and raised from seed 

 of good cider Apples. If he found on their fruiting that they were 

 what he wanted as cider Apples he was glad to keep them ; 

 if not, he cut their heads off and regrafted them with good cider sorts. 

 These were free and handsome trees with good grass below them, 



