Review of PaxtoWs Horticultural Register. 189 



laterals, instead of one pair. This is done by stopping the upright 

 when it has attained the length of twelve or thirteen inches. This 

 will happen, perhaps, about the beginning of July ; and will cause 

 three other shoots to be produced during the autunm, to be trained as 

 before. We have seen a young Jargonelle pear tree managed so as to 

 produce three pairs of laterals in the course of one summer ; but this is 

 not a common case. 



Some practitioners prefer having two stems rather than one, because 

 it diverts the upright current of the sap into two channels, and thereby 

 induces a slower growth, which is favorable to early fruitfulness. In 

 this plan, a young tree having four shoots is j)lanted between two 

 stakes. These receive the two middle shoots to form the up'-ights, 

 and the two outside shoots are tied down horizontally. The uprights 

 are annually pruned down to furnish laterals year after year till the 

 form is complete. 



Whether with one or two stems this style of training always looks 

 neat ; and, when the trees are also fruitful, is preferable to any other, 

 whether on a low wall or espalier. But it requires considerable skill 

 and almost hourly attendance during the summer, to accomplish this 

 desirable result. The natural tendency of the tree is to rise upward ; 

 and instead of the buds which come forth from the stem and branches 

 being formed into flowers, they are chiefly produced into barren shoots. 

 A strong growth of these are annually produced, and, for the most part, at 

 right angles to the branches ; and therefore, departing so entirely from 

 the style of training, must necessarily be pruned off to maintain the 

 symmetry of the tree. If this luxuriant summer growth be allowed, it at 

 the same time strengthens and extends the roots by prompting them to 

 inci'eased action in the following year ; a circumstance rather to be avoid- 

 ed than encouraged in a fruit tree. 



To obtain the desired form, and induce fruitfulness, the vigor of the 

 tree must be checked, by preventing all extravagant growth in the sum- 

 mer ; and with this view the trees must be frequently inspected during 

 the months of April, May, and June, in order to rub off every bud threat- 

 ening to come forth in a wrong place. And of those suffered to remain 

 to form spurs, they should be stopped as soon as they have gained a 

 length of six or seven inches. The leading shoots at the point of the 

 branches are never stopped till they have gained their utmost limit, or till 

 they interfei'e with other trees. 



This dismemberment, performed annually, soon gets the whole sys- 

 tem into a stunted or stationary state, and until this state of an espalier 

 be acquired, it is never sufficiently fi-uitful. 



As trees trained as espaliei-s are those called spur-bearers, and which 

 spurs bear the flowers, they are particularly cared for in pruning ; 

 always preserving those nearest the place whence they issue, so as to 

 keep them snugly in line, and not dangling too far from the branches. 

 The senior Mr. Harrison has given excellect directions on this branch 

 of pruning fruit trees, and well worth the consideration of all engaged 

 in the business. 



Espaliers are planted at various distances, according to their natural 

 volume ; but as the quality of the soil always determines the growth, it 

 is not easy to fix a rule for inter-distances. In a kindly loam of middling 

 quality and of moderate depth, the distances may vai-y from fifteen to 

 thirty feet; the nearer distances for plums and apples, the greater 

 for pears and some sorts of cherries. Some trainers intermix the 

 branches of proximate trees ; in which case they may be planted at first, 

 nearer together. But it is a good plan to have supernumeraries ; the 

 trouble of removing a tree from between two overbearing, or valuable 

 neighbors, is not great, and besides it gives opportunity for selecting 

 those most worthy the station. 



