APPLES. 137 



or of cider apples are preferred. Stocks kept one or two 

 years in nursery-lines are fit for grafting upon ; but if a 

 considerably tall stem be wished, they must remain three 

 or four years in the nursery, and be pruned up, till they 

 attain five or six feet of height. In the Dutch nurseries, 

 where apple trees are trained for some years to the cup- 

 shape, the table, the pyramidal, or the bulb forms, before 

 they be sold to the public, the trees are repeatedly trans- 

 planted ; but with us, where such forms are less sought 

 after, the utility of more transplantations than from the 

 seed-bed to the nursery-lines, and thence to the garden, 

 may, in Mr. Knight's opinion, be questioned. Any com- 

 mon soil, provided the subsoil be dry, suits the apple tree. 

 Shallow planting should, in all cases, be practiced, and 

 young trees should be carefully staked, to prevent wind- 

 waving. 



The fruit, as in the pear tree, is produced on spurs, 

 which come out on the branchlets of two or more years' 

 growth, and continue fertile for a series of years. There 

 is, therefore, no very material difference in the pruning 

 and training of the pear and of the apple tree. On walls, 

 the horizontal mode of training is commonly followed, as 

 best calculated to repress the too vigorous growth of the 

 tree : but for the nonpareil, and other twiggy varieties, 

 perhaps the fan form, or some modification of the fan form, 

 is preferable. For standards, where the soil is rich and 

 the growth rapid, all that is necessary in pruning is to 

 thin out the branches, and to prevent their crossing and 

 rubbing against each other. Where there is little luxu- 

 riance, as in the case of all dwarfs, it is useful to shorten 

 the branches occasionally, and to remove useless twigs. 

 Dwarfs on paradise stocks may be treated almost like cur- 

 rant-bushes ; that is, making them open in the centre, or 



