110 FIGURE OF STANDARD TREES. 



green side down, or rough manure, or stones, so as 

 to admit the rain and keep out the sun; and use 

 the pruning knife with a view to encourage fruit- 

 bearing rather than the growth of wood, taking care 

 to cut out from the middle the strongest branches, 

 and to leave those towards the outside which are 

 smaller and pendent. Thus, by causing the tree 

 to spread and diminishing its height, you lessen its 

 growing powers, promote fruitbearing, and retard 

 the descent of the roots. 



With regard to the figure of young trees, in any 

 circumstances, it is better to have nothing to do 

 either with tying down the branches or with hoops 

 to keep them open, but to leave all to the knife. 

 Let the tree live on, in its own way, till it have 

 something to spare, and then it is easy to shape it 

 to your fancy. The main thing to make it spread 

 properly is to cut each of the outer circle of shoots 

 right over a bud that looks outwards. This must 

 be done at the rise of the sap, in spring, as it is not 

 safe, before the winter frosts, to expose the bud, on 

 which you depend for future growth, to the rawness 

 of an incision so near it. This bud, pointing out- 

 wards, will give rise to a shoot which will take a 

 direction considerably more horizontal than that to 

 which the tree is naturally disposed; and this, the 

 simplest operation, only requiring a little minute- 

 ness of attention, will promote the spreading of a 

 tree far more effectually than the clumsy artifice of 

 appending weights, or introducing hoops, and doing 

 mischief by so many knots and strings. 



