218 PRUNING. 



can sustain with safety, a portion of them must be pruned 

 off. The lower parts always experience this difficulty 

 first, the sap circulating more slowly there than in the 

 summit. Fruit spurs of the pear and apple, if well 

 managed, continue in a vigorous bearing state for a great 

 many years. To renew and prolong their vigor, the older 

 parts must, from time to time, be cut away, and new pro- 

 ductions created at their base to take their place. 



Planning and management of the Apple as a dwarf 

 on the paradise stock, 



Xothing is more simple than the treatment of these 

 little bushes. 



They should have short stems, six to eight inches from 

 the ground, and the head should not be allowed to exceed 

 three to three and a half feet in height, because the roots 

 are very small, and do not take such a firm hold of the 

 ground as to admit of a head that would offer much ob- 

 stacle to the wind. The branches should be evenly dis- 

 tributed around the head, open in the centre, in the form 

 of a vase, and be furnished in all their parts with bearing 

 spurs. 



These are the points to aim at in commencing the 

 formation of these trees. The proceedings are as follows : 



1st. Pruning. "We will suppose that the subject is a 

 yearling bud or graft, a single shoot eighteen to twenty 

 inches in height. In this case, the stem is cut back to the 

 point where it is intended to form the head, six to ten 

 inches, as the case may be, from the stock. Below this, 

 most of the buds will start and form shoots, from which 

 we select three or four of the strongest and best situated, 

 equally distant, if possible, around the stem, and rub or 

 pinch off all the others. The growth of the branches 

 thus selected for a head, is encouraged during the firpt 

 season, by keeping down all other productions that may 

 appear. 



