ODD METHODS OF PRUNING AND TRAINING 375 



serve as suggestions of forms and methods that may be 

 followed. In these excerpts the following words need 

 definition : Cordon, a plant consisting of one shoot, or 

 two trained opposite to each other, and bearing fruit 

 spurs. A palmette is a single vertical stem with several 

 side branches. Standard, in European usage, is a solitary 

 trunk not attached to a support. It is not a synonym 

 of dwarf, as in America. Espalier, a trellis or any plant 

 grown upon a trellis, not a form of training. The modes 

 of training described below enable the gardener to adapt 

 trees to restricted quarters, to have each main branch sup- 

 plied with bearing wood from end to end, to equalize 

 fruit-bearing each year and each successive year, and to 

 enhance both size and quality of fruit. 



272. General principles of training. Alphonse Du Breuil* gives 

 the following general principles for training fruit trees on walls 

 and trellises. The numbers indicate individual corollaries under the 

 main principles printed in italics. 



A. The permanency of form of trained trees is dependent upon 

 the equal diffusion of sap being maintained throughout the whole 

 extent of the branches. 



1. Prune strong branches short; but allow weaker ones to grow 

 long. 2. Depress strong parts, and elevate weak ones. 3. Suppress 

 useless buds on strong parts as early as possible. Practice sup- 

 pression as late as possible on leaf parts. 4. Suppress herbaceous 

 extremities on strong parts very early, but practice suppression 

 as late as possible on weak parts, taking off only the most 

 vigorous shoots and those that must be removed because of the 

 position they occupy. 5. Nail up strong parts very early and 

 very close to the wall or the trellis, but delay doing so to 

 weak parts. 6. Suppress several leaves on strong sides [of the 

 plant]. 7. Allow as large a quantity of fruit as possible to remain 

 on the strong side and suppress all on the weak side. 



8. Soften green parts on the weak side with sulphate of iron 

 solution 24 grains in a pint of water, applied after sunset. [This 

 is believed to stimulate leaf activity "in drawing sap from the roots." 

 M. G. K.] 9. Bring weak side forward from the wall ; keep strong 

 side close to it. 10. Place a covering on a strong part to deprive it 

 of light. 



B. Sap develops branches much more vigorously on a branch cut 

 short than on one left long (Chapter X, 106). C. Sap has always 

 a tendency to flow toward the extremities of branches and to make 

 terminal buds develop more vigorously than lateral ones (91). 



* The Scientific and Profitable Culture of Fruit Trees, English edition. 



