366 BUSH-FRUITS 



to divide as the bush gets older. They are an- 

 nually shortened to a few inches of new growth 

 and the side shoots cut back to from one to four 

 buds. 



In practical culture, thinning is all done by the 

 amount of wood removed. In the production of prize 

 berries, as practiced by English growers, thinning is 

 an absolute necessity. The largest fruit can only be 

 produced by closely limiting the number which the 

 plant is allowed to carry. Thinning is no less impor- 

 tant in commercial work, because done by removing 

 wood, instead of individual fruits. 



Various methods of training have been reported. 

 In some cases they have been trained as single stems 

 and tied to stakes; in others they have been made to 

 cover arbors by carefully training up shoots at given 

 distances apart. Some very remarkable bushes have 

 been reported. In the tree form they have been said* 

 to reach a height of sixteen feet, and others have 

 been trained as standards with clear stems five feet 

 high. In the Transactions of the London Horticul- 

 tural Society, Vol. V, p. 490, a plant is reported 

 which was forty -six years old, measuring twelve 

 yards in circumference and which had produced 

 several pecks of fruit annually for thirty years. 

 Another, thirty years old, was trained to a build- 

 ing, and measured 53 feet 4 inches from one ex- 

 tremity to the other. This bore four or five pecks 

 of fruit annually. 



*Tilton's Journal, 9:378. 



