31 



knowledge of the special habit of this and that sort which 

 they may be pruning. If the kind be one of spare and 

 lanky growth, apt to make a thin hollow head, they will 

 perhaps cut the laterals back to a bare six inches, and in 

 this way secure a closer after-set of branches. A sort lavish 

 of wood and hard to keep in bounds is left full long. This 

 " counsel of perfection " can only be hinted at here, to 

 show by an example how much observation and forethought 

 go to make a good gardener. The average given, viz., one 

 foot, will be found to cover average cases, and the reader 

 must get his experience where every skilled man gets it, 

 that is, by trial. Supposing that side shoots have been 

 made on the part of the laterals left, they are to be cut 

 back to the lowest or at the most the second bud from the 

 base. Many, as in the case of the main stem, cut them 

 away entirely ; a practice not to be recommended. 



34. The second season comes round. Each twelve inch 

 lateral is allowed to make two sublaterals and no more. 

 The others are pinched out as they appear all through the 

 summer. In choosing the shoots for these and suppressing 

 the rest, much more judgment is required than in the simple 

 work of the first year. You have to consider what form 

 will be given to the tree by the increase of this or that 

 shoot you may elect to leave, and thus prophesy what your 

 tree will be like ultimately. And unlike other prophets, 

 you can force your predictions to come true. Leave all 

 these sub-laterals of the second degree to grow their best 

 throughout the summer following, unless they become too 

 rampant altogether, and break away into side shoots to the 

 weakening of their axial extension. The apricot has a 

 precocious habit of this sort, and has to be kept in order 

 by pinching in during the summer as may be necessary. 



35. So matters proceed till the third winter pruning- sea- 

 son comes round. The tree has now got its Y-shaped profile 

 pretty distinct, and the dullest observer can see it is being 

 worked on a predeterminate plan. Do not let the tree give 

 more than a sample of its produce, just to assure you it is 

 the precise sort you planted it for, and that it agrees with 

 the authoritative descriptions in Hogg's Manual and other 

 pomological descriptive works. Thin such precocious bear- 

 ing down to just enough for judgment ; the fruit is rarely 



