APRICOT, AND PLUM TREES. 75 



the like circumstances, a very gratifying arrange- 

 ment may be adopted one by which the tree will 

 no longer be ill looking, but soon clothed with 

 abundant blossom and fruit. This affords a plea- 

 sure of that kind which we have in the reformation 

 of a prodigal; and in which case, as in the former, 

 some of the complacency is perhaps due to the pa- 

 tience and methods we have employed, contrary to 

 the opinion of others who judged the recovery 

 hopeless. 



Choose some fine winter day, and begin your 

 operations by wrenching the ragged hedge-like tree 

 entirely from the wall. Cut out a number of its 

 oldest and barest boughs, with a view to acquire a 

 plentiful supply of young wood near the heart of 

 the tree; prune all the remaining branches quite 

 smooth, about half way to the top, and then restore 

 them to the wall, by an equal distribution in the 

 form of a fan; but let the bared portion of each 

 branch be held out from the wall about four inches, 

 by pieces of wood set behind. Near the extremity 

 of these branches will be found by the favour of 

 former negligence, an abundance of young shoots, 

 some of one and some of two year's growth. Let 

 all these be laid down in close order, like a circle of 

 rays, which in summer they will still more resemble 

 by the brightness of their blossom. Within this 

 luminous ring you will have another circle, yet in 

 embryo, composed of the young shoots proceeding 

 from the old stem, and for whose expansion you 

 have provided, by keeping the naked part of the 



