THK APPLE AND THE PEAK, 237 



Pruning and Management of the Apple as a Dwarf 

 on the Paradise stock. 



Nothing is more simple than the treatment of tliese little 

 bushes. 



They should have short stems, six to eight inches from 

 the ground, and the head should not be allowed to exceed 

 three to three and a half feet in hight, because the roots 

 are very small, and do not take such a firm hold of the 

 ground as to admit of a head that would oifer much ob- 

 stacle to the wind. The branches should be evenly distrib- 

 uted around the head, open in the center, in the form of 

 a vase, and be furnished in all their parts with bearing 

 spurs. 



These are the points to aim at in commencing the for- 

 mation of these trees. The proceedings are as follows : 



First Pruning. — We will suppose that the subject is a 

 yearling bud or graft, a single shoot eighteen to twenty 

 inches in hight. In this case, the stem is cut back to the 

 point where it is intended to form the head, six to ten 

 inches, as the case may be, from the stock. Below this, 

 most of the buds will start and form shoots, from which 

 we select three or four of the strongest and best situated, 

 equally distant, if possible, around the stem, and rub or 

 pinch off all the others. The growth of the branches thus 

 selected for a head, is encouraged during the first season, 

 by keeping down all other productions that may appear. 



Second Pruning. — The tree has now three or four 

 branches destined to be the basis of the framework of the 

 head. These branches are cut back full one half their length, 

 according as the buds in the variety are easily excited or 

 not, the object being to induce all the buds below the cut 

 to push. After growth has commenced, and an inch or 

 two of new Avood been made, the shoot from the bud cut 

 to, will be chosen as a leader to continue the extension of 

 tlie branch ; and if secondary branches are wanted, they 

 will be chosen from those best situated, to fill up the ex- 



