148 AMERICAN POMOLOGY. 



mutilation as much as possible. The effect of this will be 

 to check the wood-growth the ensuing summer, and fruit- 

 buds will be formed, for it is well known that these two 

 opposite conditions of plant life are complementary the 

 one to the other, and while we always desire to see them 

 both proceeding together in a healthy tree, the wood- 

 growth must have been moderated before we can expect 

 to receive any fruit. 



The French and English excel us in training upon walls 

 and espaliers, and we may willingly yield them the palm ; 

 since, in this country, it is rarely necessary to incur so 

 great expense for the production of good fruits, and as a 

 means of dwarfing our trees, it is more expensive and re- 

 quires more .skill, care, and watchfulness, than other meth- 

 ods of producing this effect. Espalier training, how- 

 ever, affords the most beautiful opportunity for the illus- 

 tration of many of the important principles of vegetable 

 physiology, but it should never be undertaken by any one 

 who is not familiar with these, and at the same time wil- 

 ling to exercise great patience and perseverance in their 

 application to the subjects under his control. No blind 

 pursuance of the abstract rules of the art can enable the 

 mere routine gardener to become a successful grower of 

 espajier trees. The modes of training are various, to suit 

 the whims and necessities of the artist. Trees are fastened 

 directly to the walls, or to trellises of wood or of iron, 

 that are. placed at a little distance from the masonry, or 

 they may be entirely independent of any such structures, 

 and exposed to the air* and light freely on both sides. 

 The trellises may be either vertical, or inclined. The 

 limbs may be made to issue nearly opposite to one anoth- 



