PTEAMIDAL PLUM TREES. 81 



As these crab stock trees grow more fi'eely than the 

 Paradise stock trees, summer pinching, or shortening 

 the young shoots with a penknife, as recommended in 

 p. 68, must be attended to, and then, in the most un- 

 favorable apple tree soils, healthy and most prolific | 

 pyramids may be formed. Any of the varieties re- 

 commended in pp. 67 and 68 will succeed well as 

 pyramids on the crab-stock. 



If managed in this manner, fine trees may be formed, 

 not only of the robust-growing kinds, but even of the 

 old ISTonpareil, Golden Pippin, Golden Reinette, 

 Hawthornden, Ribston Pippin, and several others, all 

 more or less inclined to canker. I have a row of 

 Nonpareils and Ribston Pippins planted in the cold- 

 est and most unfavorable soil I could find, yet, owing 

 to their being biennially removed, they are entirely 

 free from canker. 



The vigorous growth of standard apples, when 

 planted in orchards in the usual way, is _well known, 

 and also their tendency to canker after a few years of 

 luxuriant growth. Pyramids on the crab, without 

 occasional removal, or root- pruning, would,, in like 

 manner, grow most freely, and, even if subjected to 

 summer pinching, would soon become a mass of en- 

 tangled, barren, cankered shoots. 



PYEAMIDAl PLUM TBEES. 



The plum, if planted in a rich garden soil, rapidly 

 forms a pyramid of large growth — it, in fact, can 

 scarcely be managed by summer pinching. It be- 

 comes crowded with young shoots and leaves, and the 

 shortening of its strong horizontal branches at the end 



