40 



TRAINING. 



will generally be productive, yet if one should 

 be so luxuriant that it will not bear freely, 

 let the branches be trained so that they re- 

 gularly incline towards the ground, and the 

 more luxuriant the tree is the greater must 

 be their inclination. This will not only 

 make such trees fruitful, but the fruit will also 

 be finer; for as all the branches are trained 

 in a pendulous position, the sap is regularly 

 distributed and properly employed in the ma- 

 turing of the fruit and fruit buds, whereas if 

 only a part of the branches were trained ho- 

 rizontally, and the remainder more erect, 

 which is the case in fan training; the sap 

 would flow more freely in such vertical 

 branches, and the effect would be in that 

 part the production of luxuriant unproduc- 

 tive wood. And as the principal part of the 

 sap would be expended where it had the 

 least obstruction, consequently the other part 

 of the branches would be weakly and the 

 fruit small. This I have fully proved both 

 in trees trained the fan way, and also in 

 some that were trained as espaliers, and 

 which in addition to the branches trained, I 

 allowed to produce heads as standards. It 

 evidently appeared that one part of the tree 

 opposed the other, and this effect continued 

 until the upper part of it was furnished with 

 such a supply of branches, as were propor- 

 tionable to the quantity of food received; 

 then the upper part of it became productive, 



