1 66 The Palmette Verrier. 



fected by allowing the young shoots to first grow and gather strength 

 in an erect or oblique position. The branch E kept company when 

 young with the central branch, and was at B ; then it was lowered 

 to C, next year to D, and finally to its horizontal position. Some 

 care is required to make the bend of the shoots equal and easily 

 rounded. If the tree be trained on a wire trellis, as depicted in 

 Fig. 37> it ' 1S best to place two bent rods in the exact position 

 requisite, and before we require the shoot to be bent. They 

 must be placed at exactly equal distances from the main stem, and 

 be equal in curvature. Then it is an easy matter to gently attach 

 the growing shoot to them ; it will soon harden to the desired bend. 

 Against a wall it will be easy to direct it with shreds and nails 5 if 

 the wall be wired the bits of bent twig may be applied, as on the 

 trellis. Like care should be bestowed upon the other bends, as they 

 require to be made ; but of course the outer and lower one is of 

 the greatest importance. 



The reader will observe that, in the formation of this Palmette 

 Verrier, the custom is not to attempt training the young shoot in the 

 position it is finally destined to occupy, but, on the contrary, to 

 permit it first to grow sometimes in an erect, or at least in an 

 oblique direction, so that the sap may flow upwards without check. 

 Nothing is easier than taking down the shoots from time to time, 

 as they become strong and well developed. Now this is a principle 

 almost unknown to, and certainly unpractised by, ourselves j being 

 applicable to many forms of training, I can strongly recommend 

 it, having frequently witnessed the good effects produced by care- 

 fully carrying it out. This and the following article are in the 

 main free translations from the last edition of Professor Du Breuil's 

 work on fruit trees. 



