CHAP. 



shoots that corrie im mediately before of immediately 

 behind should be severed, and those that you leave at the 

 sides will profit by it. Recollect always that the shoot 

 you save for a wood-branch should be healthy and 

 vigorous j and if the one best suited to your purpose as 

 to locality, be not so, reject it and fix on a lower and 

 healthier. When the fruit is set, all the shoots proceed- 

 ing from the bearing branches, should be removed, with 

 the exception of those neighbouring ones which tend to 

 nourish the fruit by drawing the sap to it, and of those 

 that have been fixed on for the purpose of succeeding 

 the whole branch. Should all the blossoms of a branch 

 be sterile, prune immediatly down to one or two buds. 



250. NAILING is also an essential part of training. Ify 

 is performed after the prunings both of winter and sum- 

 mer, only that in the latter, it is not done 'till the shoots 

 are strong enough to bear the constraint without danger 

 of breaking. It may be well deferred, especially in old 

 trees, 'till the month of July, or even August j or better 

 still never to do it 'till the trees are found to require it. 

 The object is to keep the branches in their proper and as- 

 signed position, and it is done (when there is no trellis 

 against the wall) by means of shreds, and nails driven 

 into the wall, by which the branches are supported. 

 When there is a trellis, you tie with matting. To nail 

 well, you must bend the shoots and branches without 

 effort, without making sharp angles, and yet make them 

 stretch to their utmost in the form of a wide V. So 

 manage it that each branch and its shoots shall assume 

 the form of the tree j so that every part of the tree be 

 furnished, the middle, the sides, and the upper and lower 





