ODD METHODS OF PRUNING AND TRAINING 373 



age and variety of plant he wants. In America the de- 

 mand for such plants is so nearly nil that the nurserymen, 

 with rare exceptions, do not carry any such trees in stock. 

 Many of them, however, will develop such plants to order. 

 But why should the amateur not develop them himself? 

 He can probably command at least as good skill and in 

 many cases far better at home because of personal in- 

 terest in the plants. How shall he start? 



It will be well whenever possible to do the propaga- 

 tion at home, so as to have the plants under ideal condi- 

 tion from the start. In perhaps no case should trees older 

 than one year be chosen for any of these special forms 

 of training. If the trees have been propagated at home, 

 they need not suffer in the least from digging because 

 they may be left during the second year where they grew 

 the first. Note the reasons for this under the heading 

 Dwarf Trees (270). Where it is not convenient to follow 

 this suggestion, the next best thing is to buy yearling 

 trees. Choice should be made among the medium-sized, 

 well-grown specimens, the large and the small-sized 

 grades being avoided for obvious reasons. The main 

 reason for choosing yearling trees is that the buds on 

 the trunk will be far sturdier than on trunks two years 

 old or older and the branches may be developed exactly 

 where wanted. 



The height to have the trunk and the number of 

 branches to develop will depend upon the style of training 

 to be followed. In all such training it must be re- 

 membered that the tree is being forced to develop in a 

 more or less unnatural way and, therefore, must receive 

 special attention. To use an illustration, these methods 

 are like teaching school children to write : a beautiful 

 script specimen is set before them and they attempt to 

 imitate the pretty writing, often with ludicrous though 

 unintentional caricatures ! If it is difficult to teach in- 

 telligent children so simple a feat as writing, how much 

 more to train a tree in the way it should go! Success 



