FRUITS. CHAP. 



ported by something like carpentering work ; or it is 

 sure to lean on one side 5 and every reader must know 

 that a rarer sight is hardly to be seen in England than an 

 apple-tree with an upright stem. Indeed, more than one 

 half of such trees totally fail, and those that do not, are 

 so crippled in their roots that they become poor weakly 

 things, and, if not unproductive altogether, bear very 

 mean fruit. The true way to have a fine orchard would 

 be, to plant the trees when young, having been previously 

 moved, as directed under the head of PLANTING in this 

 Chapter. After planting, the trees should be cut down 

 just before the buds begin to burst, to one bud, or two, 

 at most, for fear of accidents. If to two buds, only one 

 should be suffered to send up its shoot. All things hav- 

 ing been done rightly, this shoot would be strong, and 

 fed by a root which would have fairly started in the pro- 

 gress with itself. To insure stoutness of trunk, take 

 care that no side -shoots be suffered to remain for any 

 length of time, even the first summer. The second 

 spring after planting, cut the new shoot down to within 

 three buds of its bottom : it will send out three shoots, 

 jub off the two lower ones, and suffer the top one to go 

 on ; and this shoot will now, in good ground, attain the 

 height of a man's head. The next spring, shorten down to 

 four or five or six shoots, according to the strength of the 

 trunk, and during the summer, take off the side shoots j 

 and you will have in the fall, a trunk seven or eight feet 

 high. That is the tree. Nature will teach it, after that, 

 how to form its head ; and your business will be to keep 

 the inside of the head clear by cutting off the shoots 

 that there cross or interfere with each other. Apple-trees, 

 and the same may be said of all other fruit-trees, woukj 



