THE VINEYARD AND ORCHARD. 113 



be cut well back in early spring, or we have long, 

 naked reaches of wood and a deformed tree. It is 

 far better, however, not to let these rampant shoots 

 grow to maturity, but to pinch them back in early 

 summer, thus causing them to throw out side- 

 branches. By summer pinching and rubbing off 

 of tender shoots a tree can be made to grow in any 

 shape we desire. When the trees receive no sum- 

 mer pruning, Mr. Force advises that the branches 

 be shortened in at least one half in the spring, 

 while some shoots are cut back even more rigor- 

 ously. At the age of four or five years, according 

 to the vigor of the trees, he permits them to bear. 

 Now cultivation ceases, and the ground is left to 

 grow hard, but not weedy or grassy, beneath the 

 boughs. Every spring, just as the blossoms are 

 falling, he spreads evenly under the branches four 

 quarts of salt. While the trees thrive and grow 

 fruitful with this fertilizer, the curculio, or plum- 

 weevil, does not appear to find it at all to its taste. 

 As a result of his methods, Mr. Force has grown 

 large and profitable crops, and his trees in the 

 main are kept healthy and vigorous. His remedy 

 for the black knot is to cut off and burn the small 

 boughs and twigs affected. If the disease appears 

 in the side of a limb or in the stem, he cuts out all 

 trace of it, and paints the wound with a wash of 

 gum shellac and alcohol. 



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