218 SOME SPECIFIC ADVICE . 



prune your two-year-old tree, cut out every limb 

 that forms a crotch with its neighbor. 



"The tree in Fig. 144 will convey the idea of 

 what a two-year-old tree ought to be like after 

 having received its second pruning. Notice the 

 arrangement of the limbs. All crotches have 

 been avoided; from the ground to the lowest 

 branches is twelve inches, and the entire height of 

 the tree thirty inches. Contrast this little stocky 

 tree with the weaklings of the same 

 age one commonly meets in orchards 

 to-day, with thin, misshapen trunk 

 three or four feet high, surmounted 

 by two or three long spindling 

 branches, the whole innocent of 

 knife and shears. No wonder our 

 trees break down ; they have not 

 strength to carry a heavy crop of 

 fruit! 



"After having selected the desired 

 number of limbs intended to form 

 the frame of the tree, shorten these 

 back to within a foot of the trunk, 

 always cutting to a plump promi- 

 nent bud. The tree may be spread, 

 or it may be contracted, by cutting 

 to a bud which points outward, for 

 the former, and to a bud that inclines inward 

 for the latter. You need not hope to alter the 

 character of the tree by this cutting to a bud, 



