Encyclopaedia of Gardening i 39 



tective substance should be wrapped round the stem to prevent 

 chafing. 



Supports for trained trees. Bushes and pyramids do not need 

 supports, but fans, espaliers, and cordons do. In the case of walls, 

 shreds and nails may 

 be used, and the fruit 

 dealer or seedsman 

 will supply suitable 

 kinds of both. Other- 

 wise, wire comes into 

 play. One wire fixed 

 2 ft. above the ground 

 will support horizontal 

 cordons, which, how- 

 ever, are inferior to 

 upright ones. Up- 

 right cordons, and also 

 espaliers, may be sup- 

 ported on tiers of wire 

 strained a foot apart 



to a total height of 

 6 or 7 ft. Fruit 

 dealers, seedsmen, and 



FAN TREE. Fig. B. 

 I. Fruit spurs. Result of pruning (as in Fig. A, p. 138), 



ironmongers supply strong metal straining posts, with keys for 

 tightening the wires. Wooden posts may, however, be used, 

 provided the straining post is made absolutely immovable; if it 

 yields only 2 or 3 ins. the wires will be slack. It should be a 

 strong, thick post that will hold stiff from bottom to top when 

 well bedded in. Single wire will do, although strand wire is often 

 used. It should be unwound from a reel, otherwise it will run inta 

 bends and be full of kinks before the work is finished. 



Root pruning. When fruit trees have been planted 2 or 3 years 

 it sometimes happens that they grow far too strongly, especially 

 if the soil is rich and the summers are wet. To use figures as a 

 guide, if the summer shoots grow over a yard in length fruitfulness 

 is jeopardised, because when a tree makes coarse wood it does not, 

 as a rule, form fruit buds. The remedy is not cutting back the 



gross wood, which 





only causes back buds 

 to start and so aggra- 

 vates the evil, but to- 

 prune the roots in 

 winter when the tree 

 is at rest. The soil 

 should be forked 



CORDON TREES. awa ? , f f Om th r ts 



_, carefully, and the 



The bars snow the points of pruning m winter for branches 4_- rt ^ 



that have been summer pinched. strong, far - running, 



deep - striking roots 



cut through a couple of feet from the hole. Fibrous roots may be 

 left. In the case of a large tree growing in the open it will be- 

 prudent to restrict the pruning to a half-circuit of the tree; if 



