too PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF PRUNING. 



stocks, the heads should be about twenty inches or two feet 

 high. 



Pyramids. For pyramids (a form of training applied most 

 frequently to dwarf pears), the early treatment is quite differ- 

 ent from that of standards. As the sap tends to the summit 

 of the tree, producing the strongest side-shoots toward the 

 top, and the shortest and most feeble toward the bottom, the 

 natural form of the tree gradually becomes a trunk or stem 

 with a branching head. To prevent this result, and give a 

 strong, broad set of branches at the bottom, a thorough and 

 regular system of shortening-down must be adopted at the 

 outset. The following is a brief outline of the course usually 

 pursued : 



After the single shoot from the bud has grown one season 

 (Fig. 140), it is cut down so as to leave not over one foot, and 



if the tree is weak not over six 

 inches (Fig. 141). As a conse- 

 quence, the buds on this remaining 

 portion, receiving all the sap, 



^Y, \\^f/jy make a vigorous growth. The 



upper one must be converted into 

 a leader, by pinching off early the 

 tips of the others, beginning first 



starting the pyramid. with the upper ones, which will be 



the strongest, and gradually descending as the season advances 

 to the lower ones, which should be left the longest in order to 

 give them the most strength (Fig. 142). Six inches of naked 

 stem below the branches should be left, by rubbing off all 

 shoots below; and if in a region liable to deep snows, 'this 

 space should be a foot, to prevent splitting off the limbs by 

 the weight of the snow, and for which object the tree should 

 not be cut down lower than eighteen inches at the close of the 

 first season. The pruning after the second year's growth, 

 consists in cutting down again the leader for a second crop of 

 side-shoots; and these side-shoots, and the new leader, are to 

 be treated precisely as those below were treated the year be- 

 fore. At the same time, the last year's side-shoots, on the 

 lower part, are to be cut back (the longest at the bottom so 

 as to give a pyramidal form), in order to insure the growth of 

 the buds upon them. The new side-shoots thus caused may 



