346 THE CORDON SYSTEM OF FRUIT GROWING. 



the trench on each side of the line of plants, so as to cover 

 their bases to the depth of four inches or so. 



" In the following November these buds will have taken 

 root, the plants from which they take their origin will con- 

 sequently be alluded to in future as old stools, and will 

 give every year a certain number of young plants. 



" Every year during the month of November the young 

 plants should be stripped from these old stools. It is neces- 

 sary above all during the first year to use a strong secateur 

 for taking them off in order not to injure the stools ; later 

 on they may be simply broken off. Immediately after this 

 operation the wounds left in the trees should be covered 

 over with earth. They will perform the same service for 

 a great length of time — from five to ten years, according ' 

 to the care taken of them — and the young plants thus ob- 

 tained will serve for grafting in the nursery. 



" For this purpose the ground which is destined to 

 receive them should be well dug and then divided in lines 

 distant from each other two feet or two feet six inches. 

 The operation of planting in beds requires great care. The 

 young plants should be well trimmed both at top and 

 bottom, so as to give the branches a uniform length of 

 sixteen inches. They should then be planted sixteen or 

 twenty inches apart and three or four inches deep, and the 

 ground hoed frequently until the month of August, so as to 

 destroy the weeds and break up the ground. At this period 

 the young plants are ready for budding, each subject re- 

 ceiving a bud at about four inches above the surface of the 

 ground. Immediately afterwards, particularly in dry years, 

 it will be well to give them a good hoeing to prevent the 

 ground from caking together, and to preserve it in properly 

 moist condition. 



"During the winter the young plants that have been 

 budded should be stripped of all the shoots that have grown 

 on them to within a height of three inches above the bud, 

 and the plant itself should be pruned down to this height. 

 The following spring a certain number of small shoots will 

 make their appearance all over the pruned plant. When 

 they have reached a length of an inch or an inch and a 



