168 THE MIOTATTIRE FEUIT aAEDEN 



March, the tips of the main shoots should be shortened 

 three or four buds from the ends, and, unless a few 

 lateral shoots have been left, which should be removed, 

 the pruning for the second year will be accomplished. 



The second year each cordon or branch wiU produce 

 many lateral shoots, and as these are successively pro- 

 duced they should be pinched. The first pinching must 

 be done when the shoot has formed five or six leaves, 

 and, as a general rule, three leaves from the leaflets 

 should be the stopping point. This primary shoot will 

 form the bloom buds, and the shoot made from the ter- 

 minal bud must be stopped in the same manner as 

 the first. Discontinue pinching after June. By this 

 time the cordon will be thickly studded with wood and 

 fruit spurs ; to thin out and regulate these will form a 

 pleasant winter, morning's work; the final pruning 

 must therefore be deferred until October or November. 



The tree after the second year will assume the 

 appearance of a cordon — i.e. a thick rope of closely 

 studded shoots, and the pruning must be left to the 

 judgment of the operator. Many shoots must be re- 

 moved ; and as the size and strength of the tree must 

 regulate the number of fruit-bearing spurs, a sufficient 

 number of these being left, the operator should prune 

 all others to wood-buds, in order to produce, year by 

 year, an alternate succession of fruit-bearing wood. 



Pig. 25 is a half-standard double horizontal cordon. 

 This is very useful for low walls in gardens; where 

 the border is occupied by flowers or other plants, the 



