158 



FRUITS. 



[chap. 



purchase trees, you should look well at the roots ; and, if they be 

 very large, or at all torn, it is much better to fling the trees away 

 than to plant them ; for what are a few shillings, or even a few 

 pounds, when compared with the loss of years, in providing 

 yourself with fruit ? 



TRAINING AND PRUNING. 



223. Training and pruning go together; they are two parts 

 of the same act, because you lay the branch in its proper place at 

 the same time that you cut it. They are, therefore, inseparable 

 as matters to be treated of. There are, however, different sorts 

 of training : one against wails or pails, or against a house ; and 

 the trees thus situated are called . wall-trees. After these, come 

 espaliers and dwarf trees in various shapes for a garden. These 

 will be spoken of by and by ; and, at last, I shall speak of the 

 planting of standard trees for an orchard. The main principles 

 of pruning are the same in all cases : the objects are to render 

 trees productive, to preserve their health, and to keep them in 

 regular and convenient form ; for, in this case, as well as in 

 almost every other, though nature does a great deal, she will not 

 do all : she will not do every thing : she must be and will be 

 assisted ; and certainly the management of fruit-trees may be 

 considered as one of the principal parts of the art of gardening, 



224. I shall now give instructions for the pruning of peach 

 trees placed against walls. If I were to stop at every particular' 

 part of the instructions, in order to point out the difference be- 

 tween the pruning of a peach tree and that of the apricot and 

 other trees, the mind of the reader would be bewildered : there- 

 fore, I shali keep the peach tree solely in my eye while giving these 

 instructions ; and, as this head of training and pruning will imme- 

 diately be followed by an Alphabetical List of Fruits, the reader 

 will find, under the name of each fruit, such remarks as are 

 required to point out to him in what respect he is to differ in his 

 training and pruning from the rules laid down in the case of the 

 peach. He will, therefore, please to observe that, in the instruc- 

 tions which I am now about to give, I have the peach tree solely in 

 my eye. 



225. Training and pruning involve so many circumstances, 



