56 FRUIT CULTURE. 



it is necessary to be much more sparing with the knife, 

 not cutting back more than half of the young growth of 

 the leading shoots. Should there, however, be too many 

 of these, cut away all surplus ones, in order to keep the 

 centre or foundation of the tree well open. A standard 

 tree of four or five years' growth, that has had proper 

 treatment up to that time, would have already a good 

 foundation with considerable wood in bearing condition. 

 In this case it would be the greatest folly to adopt the 

 old, and still too prevalent, practice of cutting in the 

 growth almost to the main stem, and would be undoing 

 at least the work of two years, and simply losing so much 

 time. The object which should constantly be borne in 

 mind is to obtain the largest tree in the shortest time 

 with the greatest extension of branches. 



The old system of continued hard pruning for several 

 years certainly has the effect of producing abundance of 

 strong growth ; but it is so much growth in the wrong 

 place and to a wrong purpose. This annual shortening 

 causes the tree to become what is known as mop-headed, 

 with a quantity of rank wood growth closely matted to- 

 gether, half of which has to be entirely cut away. And 

 the again repeated shortening in the absence of fruit buds, 

 which cannot form under such treatment, causes only a 

 fresh outburst of useless side growth. 



To Summarize. If the trees are young, the ground is 

 good, and the planting done in autumn, you may venture 

 to_prune tolerably hard ; but if the trees are older, or the 

 ground not so rich, or the planting through any circum- 

 stances delayed until the spring, be very sparing of the 

 .knife; cut hard the first season only when all the cir- 

 .cumstances lead you to expect a response to the knife in 

 good strong growth. Otherwise wait until the following 



