120 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



October, 1907 



Ah established cordon apple on a trellis. It has 

 fruited regularly for several years. The growths are 

 pruned bacK to spurs each fall 



soils and are longer-lrved than if worked on 

 peach seedlings. The cherries are usually 

 grafted on mahaleb stock but some varieties 

 do not succeed well when worked directly on 

 it. In such cases they are double grafted. 

 Double grafting is also sometimes practised 

 with pears which do not take kindly to quince 

 stock. To double graft buds of some varie- 

 ties which thrive on the quince are worked 

 on quince stock and allowed to make a year's 

 growth ; then the bud of the variety which it 

 is wished to perpetuate is put on the cion. 



In England, where the dwarf fruit trees 

 are much more extensively grown than in this 

 country, the common thorn (Cratcegus Ox- 

 yacantha) has been successfully used as a 

 stock. 



Dwarf trees are handled by only a few 

 American nurserymen. Trained trees cost 

 from $2.50 to $6.50 apiece according to the 

 variety, the way they have been trained and 

 the age. 



Good dwarf, untrained, yearling trees can 

 be had, however, for about fifty cents, and if 

 you wish to graft the plants yourself Paradise 

 stock may be obtained from most of the 

 nurserymen. 



The most desirable forms for training 

 fruit trees in America are the pyramidal or 

 cone-shaped and the bush or round-headed. 

 In Europe they are trained into many differ- 

 ent shapes for special purposes, such as 

 growing on walls, fences or along paths. 

 For flat surfaces simple and compound 

 cordons and espaliers are more economical 

 of space than bushes or pyramids. How- 

 ever, in the greater part of the United States 

 fruit trees must not be trained directly on a 

 wall as they are in Europe because our hot 

 summers will burn them, but they can be 

 tied to a trellis six inches or so away from the 

 wall. In the cooler regions of the North 

 where the season is too short for peaches, as 

 it is in England, the heat of a wall will be 

 found very beneficial. 



MAKE THE SOIL CONDITION IDEAL ! 



There is no sense in trying to grow dwarf 

 fruit trees in ordinary soil. It must be rich 

 and well-drained. The ideal preparation is 

 trenching at least two feet deep, working in 

 at this time a heavy application of manure. 

 The same preparation as is given a grape 

 border will give satisfactory results. 



If the expense of trenching the whole piece 

 is too great then dig out the row where the 

 trees are to stand two feet wide and deep. 

 An admirable way to distribute the cost of 

 the preparation of the ground over several 

 years is to prepare say one-third or one-half 

 of the area at once and plant the trees close 

 together say four feet apart. The second 

 year prepare the rest of the ground and trans- 

 plant the trees. This transplanting the trees 

 improves the root system. It is only the 

 untrained yearlings that may be transplanted. 

 When planting the trained trees such as are 

 carried in stock in our American nurseries 

 set them in their permanent locations. Never 

 set the union between stock and scion below 

 the surface of the ground because roots are 

 likely to be produced from the scion which 

 would counteract the effects of the stock. 

 The union should be just above the surface 

 of the soil, then the stock will not become 

 bark-bound. 



TO PRODUCE A PERFECT HEAD 



Pruning is the next important step and in 

 this lies success or failure. The whole idea 

 is to produce strong fruiting spurs, exactly as 

 when grapes are grown on the spur system. 

 On an already trained tree the main branches 

 may be allowed to grow all summer but in 

 June the terminal bud in the lateral or side 

 shoots must be pinched out. Then all buds 

 on these laterals will become fruiting spurs. 

 These lateral branches must be kept short 

 in order that they may be stiff enough to 

 support the fruit. The main branches are 

 pruned back in late fall or early spring to two 

 or three buds in order to keep the tree in 

 shape and in as compact a form as possible. 



To bring a young tree into shape is not a 

 difficult task but it requires close attention. 

 The one-year-old tree is cut back to eighteen 

 inches. As a result several side shoots will 

 be formed. Train the topmost one up as a 

 leader, tying it to a stake and as nearly in line 

 with the main stem as possible. As soon 

 as it has made a, growth about ten inches 





The pear is easily pruned to a pyramid form by 

 cutting bacK to spurs annually, and is a mountain of 

 snowy white flowers in spring 



long pinch out the terminal bud. New 

 shoots will at once start and as soon as they 

 have made two or three leaves pinch the 

 terminal bud out of all of them except the 

 topmost one which is left for a leader. If 

 possible have the new leader start from the 

 opposite side of the tree from which the 

 previous leader started in order that the tree 

 may be perpendicular. 



The side shoots will naturally assume such 

 positions as to give the tree a symmetrical 

 habit, but if they do not place stakes where 

 the branches should be, pull the branches over 

 and tie them. These branches need not be 

 shortened until the late fall or early spring 

 when they must be shortened back to eight 

 buds. The following spring all the branches 



With dwarf trees the fruit garden can be effectively combined with flowers and lawn 





