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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 advisalle 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 
generally followed. 
Like other deciduous trees, they can be pruned whenever the 
wood is mature enough, which is indicated by looking at the 
terminal buds and the yellow colour of the leaves. Pruning should 
then be pushed forward rapidly, and the prunings removed before 
the ground gets sodden with rain water. Deciduous trees, unlike 
citrus trees, should not be touched in the active growing season, 
except with the thumb nail, cherries and apricots, as seen below, 
forming the exception to this general rule. 
Some varieties of apple, such as the Irish peach, the Jonathan, 
and also some pears, bear the best fruit at the extremities of their 
long, slender, and decumbent shoots. For that reason their leaders 
which yearly extend the growth of the main branches must every 
year be shortened lest they should carry at their extremity bunches 
of fruit which would bend these branches and destroy the sym- 
metrical growth of the tree. In the case of these trees the small 
side shoots, which measure a few inches in length, are not pinched 
