FRUIT GARDEN. 241 



Cultivated as standards and pyramids, the young 

 trees should be left in a great degree to regulate 

 their own shape ;* and if interference become prop- 

 er at all, it should be conducted under two rules, 

 " to keep the middle of the head pretty open, and 

 the sides well balanced. "f Trees of other forms, 

 and intended for walls and espaliers, require more 

 labour and management, and a degree of both sum- 

 mer and winter pruning ; the former of which con- 

 sists in rubbing off all fore-right, ill-placed, super- 

 fluous, or spongy shoots, before they become so 

 hard as to render the use of the knife necessary ; 

 while the latter (performed during any temperate 

 weather between November and April) is conduct- 

 ed on the general rule " of sparing all such well- 

 placed and thriving laterals as maybe necessary for 

 preserving the form given to the head of the tree, 

 and of cutting away all others close to the branch 

 from which they grow." If the older wood be dis- 

 eased or redundant, cut this away also, or short- 

 en it down to some healthy and promising shoots. 

 The retained branches, if growing against a wall or 

 trellis, should, after each pruning, be laid down and 

 nailed, with as much extension as can conveniently 

 be given to them. 



Mr. Knight's mode of training the pear-tree is to 

 leave on the young stock two lateral branches on 

 each side. When about six feet high, he transplants 

 the tree early in the spring, and inserts grafts on 

 each of the laterals, " so that two of them shall 

 push from the stem about four feet from the ground, 

 and two others from the summit, the ensuing year. 



* Knight remarks that, in general, very little pruning is re- 

 quired for pear standards or pyramids ; but that there are sorts 

 which form heads resembling those of apple-trees, and that for 

 these pruning may be beneficial. 



f To produce a well-balanced tree, shorten the wood of the 

 deficient side, and leave the other to itself. For the reason of 

 this rule, see a note on the art. Apple-tree. 



