THE HARDY FRUIT GARDEN. 



325 



expedients than the pruning and training of trees 

 into form. 



Maiden Trees. — The majority of trees, as 

 they come from nurseries, are called " maidens," and 

 consist of one stem, varying in length from six 

 inches to six feet. As a rule, the maidens are a 

 yard in length. This form of tree is the stait- 

 ing-point for all the rich variety of form, such as 

 Cordon, Pyramid, Biish, Espalier, Wall, Standard, 

 and Dwarf, now so common among Apple and other 

 fruit-trees. The maiden may he said to he the 

 primitive foundation of all others. Until quite 

 recently it was looked upon as a necessity. Now, 

 however, not a few raisers and sellers of fruit-trees 

 dispense with their 

 one-stemmed maidens. 

 By pinching their 

 shoots once or twice 

 during the summer, 

 three or five stems may 

 be produced of a more 

 serviceable character. 

 For example, instead 

 of the maiden tree re- 

 sembling Fig. 7 to- 

 wards the end of the 

 season, it may, by a 

 single stopping, say in 

 June, be converted in- 

 to Fig. 8 ; or by two 

 stoppings — one at the 

 end of May, and an- 

 other early in July — ^be developed in a single season 

 into the rudimentary Bush Apple-tree (Fig. 9). 

 Nor is this all that is gained by single or double 

 stopping. Observe the difference of the buds on the 

 lower and upper portion of the stems of Figs. 8 

 and 9. The difference of size in both cases indicates a 

 difference of character and of function. The plump 

 round buds on the base of these trees show them to 

 be fruit-buds, while the whole of the buds on the 

 unstopped maiden (Fig. 7) are wood-buds, thus 

 showing that judicious stoppiag, as well as a wise 

 selection and treatment of stock, hastens fertility 

 as well as accelerates the formation of the tree. 

 Fig. 10, a form mostly resulting from a single stop- 

 page of a maiden during its first year's growth, is 

 already on the high road to becoming a Pyramid, 

 Espalier, or any other desired form of Apple-tree. 



Contrast this with the one-stemmed maiden (Fig. 1 1) 

 as received from the nursery, the same cut back 

 in the spring (Fig. 12), and grown ioto three shoots 

 in the subsequent summer (Fig. 13), and it wiU at 

 once be seen that a whole year has been saved in time, 

 and more than a year in condition. It is impossible 



Fig. 14.— Wood- 

 bnds. 



to exaggerate the importance of this latter difference. 

 The trees having ma,de one vigorous shoot, and a 

 root or roots of similar character, will have estab- 

 lished a tendency to produce similar growths in the 

 future ; hence its three buds will break into shoots 

 as strong, or possibly stronger, than the first shoots 

 formed. Consequently no fruit-buds are likely to be 

 formed on the second nor probably on the third-year 

 shoots. Growth and its forcible suppression by 

 priming may thus continue for several years. As a 

 matter of fact and of history, it continued so long at 

 one time that it merged into a common saying that 

 " Men planted Pears and other fruits for their 

 children ; seldom Uving long enough to eat of them 

 themselves." All this is now altered by the use of 

 dwarfing stocks ; the 

 reduction of pruning 

 to the lowest possible 

 limits, or its total abo- 

 lition ; and by summer 

 pinching, or, as we 

 prefer to call it, the 

 moulding of growth 

 into form and fertility 

 in the making. 



Truit - buds. — It 



may be well before pro- 

 ceeding further to point 

 out the broad distinc- 

 tion between fruit and 

 wood - buds. No one 

 can prune with profit 

 who has not learned to distinguish the difference. In 

 general terms, and this applies to fruit-bearing trees 

 of all sorts, the fruit-buds are larger and also rounder 

 than the wood-buds. As a rule, too, they will be 

 found towards the basaof the stems of the wood of 

 the current or the past year. Figs. 14 and 15 are 

 pieces of two Apple-shoots, Fig. 14 clothed with 

 wood-buds only from base to summit, and the other 

 (Fig. 15) with fruit-buds. They are comparatively 

 seldom found like this, pure and unmixed, in a state 

 of natm-e. But they are shown so here to make 

 the distinction more obviously apparent. The fruit- 

 buds of Apples, Pears, Cherries, and other ti-ees are 

 also often found in clusters at the bases of spurs, and 

 in such eases they are called fruit-spurs (Fig. 16). 

 These may be solitary, or in twos, threes, or much 

 larger aggregates. Lower, or near to these fruit- 

 spurs, wood-buds are generally found, and these are 

 useful as fetching up food-supplies to the fruit, and 

 maintaining a vigorous development of vitality in 

 the near vicinity of the Apples or other fruit. 



It is important, however, to force, shorten, or piach 

 back the iootsof growing wood during the summer, 



