y..] 



TRAINING AND PRUNING. 



163 



long ; their bark is very smooth, green on the side towards the 

 wall, and red on the side towards the sun. Sometimes the flower- 

 blossoms are assembled in clusters round a short shoot, or spur of 

 one or two inches long, with a wood-bud at the end sufficient to 

 draw the sap which is necessary to nourish the fruit. 



240. First Year. — Suppose the young tree placed against a wall, 

 the first shoot of the graft never having been pruned. Cut it off 

 at six or eight inches above the place where it was grafted, as at 

 a in the figure, and then, when it has sent out its shoots, nail 



PLATE 6. 



r 



them, after havmg taken off all that come before or behind. It is 

 a general rule never to leave any shoots but such as come at the 

 sides of the branches. Choose, amongst your young shoots, two 

 of equal vigour, one on each side, by which means to form your 

 two principal branches that are always to remain ; and, having 

 done this, cut off all the rest. If one of them become longer or 

 more vigorous than the other, incline it downwards to suffer the 

 other to gain the advantage. If one of the two perish, train the 

 other straight again, prune it precisely as you did the graft, and 

 procure other two branches from it. The only mischief is that 

 your tree is thus thrown back a year. When you nail up the two 

 main, or mother, branches, extend them so as to form a very wide 

 letter V (say an angle of ninety degrees), but being cautious never, 

 on any account or at any age, to bend or arch them, or assuredly 

 the secondary branches run olf with all the sap, and your tree is 

 deformed. 



m2 



