30 







four or five lateral radiating arms, so that method is carried 

 out as.far as possible in the orchard. And espalier, cordon 

 and fan-trained trees are even more uncommon than vines 

 grown on vineyard trellising of wood or wire. In this 

 little pamphlet, no attempt will be made to detail the 

 method of shaping trees in what are, as far as the Colony 

 is concerned, merely fancy methods. It was not without 

 reason, but with a wise prevision of the power of the Cape 

 south-easter in destroying costly trellises that the Huguenot 

 fathers of our viticulture abandoned the cordon and Schalas 

 of their less wind-swept home, and adhered to the less 

 picturesque but far more suitable govelet form, or as we 

 might phrase it, the cup-shaped pattern. 



32. The first step in shaping has already been taken when 

 we headed back the graftlings as soon as planted. The 

 buds on the remaining twelve or fourteen inches of stem 

 will speedily begin to shoot out into leafy twigs. Seeing 

 that all the carbo-hydrate food-material of the plant is 

 elaborated in the leaves, whence it passes down to the stem 

 and to the points where growth is going on, this early 

 foliage is performing the function of a stomach, and it is 

 not advisable to be anxious to cut these twigs out directly, 

 saving only those afterwards required. It is an error to 

 suppose that leafing exhausts the little tree. The exten- 

 sion of the feeding roots is materially assisted by the 

 existence of leafage above. But when the growth has 

 reached some five or six inches in length, the cultivator 

 passes every tree in review, selects as future laterals, three, 

 four or five of the shoots best placed for equal division of 

 the space at command, and either completely suppresses all 

 the other lower shoots, or pinches them out to a mere two 

 inch spur. Practice differs on this point. Some like to 

 make a clean stock at once, others, knowing that the bunchy 

 leafage left helps the tree-growth, let it remain to shade 

 the trunk which as yet is tender and liable to sun-scald. 

 The chosen laterals make their growth right away to the 

 end of the season. 



33. During the dormant season succeeding, another step 

 towards shaping the tree is taken. Each lateral is cut back 

 to an outside bud, leaving about a foot of its length 

 remaining. Gardeners of experience keep in mind their 



