FRUITS. CHAP. 



255. BUSH TRAINING is rarely exercised excepting in 

 the case of dwarf apple trees, of which the gardeners 

 will sometimes have a square. It is, suffering the tree to 

 take its own natural form, and pruning only for the pur- 

 pose of keeping up an equal quantity of wood and bear- 

 ing branches. 



256. HALF-STANDARDS. If the plant have been 

 grafted where it is to stand, nothing can be done the first 

 year j but if it be a young transplanted tree, shorten the 

 graft down to 2 or 3 buds. The next year chuse the 

 strongest bud to lengthen the stem, and pinch the others 

 off at about 6 inches length to favour the one you have 

 saved, and which is to form the trunk of the tree. If, 

 out of this, there come lateral shoots, prune them short, 

 in little stumps, that is, at one or two buds, and let them 

 remain 'till the autumnal pruning, when you must cut 

 these off close to the stem as well as those that you 

 pinched off to favour the first saved shoot. And thus 

 you continue heightening the tree more and more every 

 year, 'till it shall have reached the height you wish, whe- 

 ther of standard or half-standard. If, before it get to 

 the height you desire, it should fork, pinch off the weakest 

 of the two shoots as soon as it is 3 or 4 inches long, and 

 cut it clean out at the winter pruning succeeding j or if 

 it should become distorted, or should break off by some 

 accident, either pinch off, or cut, immediately below the 

 damaged part, and in the winter pruning, shorten it 

 down to the strongest bud below that you have, one that 

 you have been favouring for the purpose since you per- 

 ceived the mischief above, and that will supply you with 

 a fresh undamaged stem. If the tree arrive at the height 



