176 A TREATISE OF 



ches, having many of their ends dead, 

 and thofe which are alive full of weak buds, 

 neither fit to produce good fruit nor 

 flioots, it is too often the cuftom to cut 

 the branches fhort, and leave many upon 

 the tree j but it is many years before a tree 

 is recovered by this pradlice, and perhaps 

 never; for fhortening the branches in- 

 creafes their number, and by being too near 

 one another they become weak, becaufe the 

 fun and air have not free accefs to all parts* 

 If there are any branches tolerably ftrong, 

 made the laft year, near the bottom of 

 the tree, they muft be difhudded and 

 nailed like the ftems of thofe trees new 

 planted, and all others muft be cut off that 

 would hinder them from being laid in a 

 fuitable pofition, without croffing one 

 another : if fuch fhoots cannot be attain- 

 ed, then choofe on each fide one, of the 

 ftrongeft and healthieft old branches, and 

 cut oft either all or moft of the fmall ones 

 from them, and nail them up in the man- 

 ner of ftems, in order to raife a tree like 

 thofe in the fourth plate, and every year, 

 as the new made branches increafe, take 

 away the old ones to make room : other 



branches 



