137 



purposely referred to it here so as to spare to the beginner in fruit- 

 growing the trouble as well as the disappointment of taking his 

 pattern in training his young trees from the classic sources favoured 

 in Europe. The California!! modified vase, with a low standard, has 

 now proved itself to be the best suited to Australian conditions, and 

 it is this system of training which I shall have in my mind in the 

 course of the following notes. 



FIRST PRUNING. 



Young budded trees in nursery rows present, the first season of 

 their growth, the appearance of a straight switch, with good buds 

 all along the stem. Sometimes they grow so vigorously that they 

 throw out laterals. Both such young trees are found in nurseries. 

 As their customers like to see as much growth as possible, nursery- 

 men generally send out their trees without cutting them back. 



Experienced orchard owners generally 

 prefer, when ordering from the nursery, one 

 year old trees, which are merely straight 

 switches with good buds all along the stem. 

 These they can cut back to the height they 

 prefer, with a length of stem pretty well 

 uniformly the same all through the orchard. 

 If they plant trees with a head ready formed in 

 the nursery they cut it short back on the 

 laterals. Those who, on the other hand, have 

 little or no experience of fruit growing, would 

 do wisely to select from the nursery trees with 

 their heads ready formed. When cutting 

 back, especially in the warmer and drier 

 localities, a stem 12 to 18 inches high will be 

 found the best. In the cooler districts it can 

 be given a height of 1 8 to 24 inches. Cut back 

 to a good bud, care having been taken that the 

 tree has not been planted too deeply, but that 

 its collar, or point of junction between the roots 

 and the stem, be as nearly as possible flush 

 with the surface of the ground. If the tree has 

 suffered much, and the buds are very small, the 

 bark leathery and wrinkled, the stem somewhat 

 dried, and the roots much injured, it is ad- 

 visable to cut the stem lower still, say at a 

 height of about 9 inches from the ground, 

 or even lower, but in every case above the 

 graft. In such cases, however, the proper 

 height should be given to the stem, either 

 by pinching the straight shoot which will 

 grow from it as soon as it reaches that desired height, or 

 by cutting it back later on at the time of winter pruning. From 

 a stem topped to a height of 15 to 18 inches several short 

 shoots will be sent up from the upper buds ; of these, three or four 



A YEARLING TREE j 

 WITHOUT BRANCHES. 



The cross line shows 

 where to cut back when 

 planting . Ba rry . 



