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and soils. Where conditions are favourable, the climate mild 

 and moist, the soil fertile and congenial, spurs and wood will prove 

 fruitful for twenty to thirty years, as is instanced by the pear. In 

 a dry and parched climate, on the other hand, or on unsuitable 

 soil, the useful life of such wood might not exceed five or six years. 

 Apples, plums and many other trees are subject to the same in- 

 fluences. Peaches and nectarines require frequent renewing. 



ROOT PRUNING. 



Some trees, and more especially apricots, exhibit at times an 

 exuberant wood growth, and fruit but sparingly, or not at all, all the 

 energy of the plant being diverted towards the branches. Root 

 pruning often induces those trees to bear. This is better done in 

 the autumn, when the tree has finished its active growth for the 

 season, and when the sap runs sluggishly, the shock being at that 

 time less severe, while during the following few weeks the energy of 

 the tree will be partly spent towards the transformation of fruit buds 

 from the leaf buds, which unless checked, would next spring have 

 continued to run riot. The method, sometimes recommended, of 

 indiscriminately cutting with a spade all the roots of such a tree in 

 a semi-circle one year and completing the circle next season, and two 

 or three feet deep from the stem is to be deprecated. The better way 

 is to dig a trench a couple of feet wide and eighteen inches deep, four 

 or five feet from the stem, then with a small fork hoe work gradually 

 towards the stem, laying some of the main roots bare. When about 

 two feet from the stem the long straight roots only, and all roots 

 pointing downwards, are cut off with a sharp knife or a saw, the cut 

 being afterwards smoothly pared ; the other main roots with some 

 fibrous roots on them are cut three feet or so from the stem and then 

 as many of the other small rootlets as can be spared are left untouched, 

 covered evenly with soil sifted through the fingers, the holes being 

 subsequently filled in with ordinary soil ; the ground is then watered 

 to settle the soil round the roots, and it is advisable to mulch lightly. 

 This operation is done on one side of the tree the first year, and is 

 repeated on the opposite side the subsequent autumn. 



Now that information applicable to the pruning and training of 

 all trees in general has been given, a few remarks respecting the 

 individual peculiarities of the most important fruit trees and shrubs 

 in cultivation will be found of use. 



PRUNING THE APPLE AND THE PEAR. 



The pruning of these two kinds of trees, which both belong to 

 the genus pyrus, is very much alike, and will for that reason be 

 considered under the same heading. 



In shaping and training the trees the first four or five years of their 

 growth, the detailed information which has been given with regard 

 to the management of low-standard trees should be closely followed. 



Like other deciduous trees, they can be pruned whenever the 

 wood is mature enough, which is indicated by looking at the 



