TRAINING. 



81 



5. The, leaves serve to jprejpare the sap absorbed by the roots 

 for the nourishment of the tree and aid in the formation 

 of buds on the shoots. All trees therefore deprived of 

 their leaves, are liable to perish. Hence, the leaves 

 should never be removed from a tree under the pre- 

 text of aiding the growth, or ripening the fruit, as 

 deprived of leaves trees cannot grow, neither can their 

 fruit mature. 



6. When the buds of any shoot or branch do not 

 develop before the age of two years, they can be 

 forced into activity only by a very close pruning and 

 in some cases, as the peach, even this will fail. Hence 

 the main branches should be trimmed so as to secure a 

 development of their successive sections, and so shortened 

 in as not to allow the production of long naked stems, 

 leaving the interior of the tree bare of shoots, and con- 

 sequently unproductive. In order to induce trees to 

 grow in any particular form it is not so much labor as 

 continued attention that is required. A thorough pruning 

 once a year will not produce the desired effect, but a 

 little attention two or three times a week during the 

 growing season, will be sufficient to examine every shoot 

 in an acre of garden trees, and the eye is very soon trained 

 so as to detect at a glance tue shoots that require attention. 



For fuller information on this subject, and indeed upon 

 every one connected with the management of trees, the 

 very best manual is Barry^s Fruit Garden, from which a 

 portion of the above is condensed. 



Training. — The principal objects of training are to 

 render plants more productive of fruits and flowers than 

 if left to grow voluntary, also to form screens of various 

 running plants to keep any unsightly object from view, 

 ^^he points to be attended to, are to entirely cover tho 

 4* 



