THEORY OF CLOSE PRUNING. 



93 



gardeners to learn it. Having myself followed 

 the system for ten years, with some success, on the 

 open wall (the first occasion on any scale in which 

 it has been thus tried in this country), and having 

 applied it to the back wall of an orchard-house, 

 with diagonal cordons (also a novelty, as described 

 in a former work), a certain experience has been 

 gained not without value. 



On the practical advantages to be derived from 

 close pruning, M. Grin thus speaks — " Whatever 

 form may be selected for the trees (his were 

 horizontal cordons with a single central stem, and 

 single diagonal cordons), first establish well your 

 principal branches. On these, by close pruning to 

 two leaves, short spurs are formed which bear 

 fruits of equal size in every part of the tree year 

 after year. It is true that M. Lepere, by a different 

 system (long pruning), produces good crops, but 

 nine out of ten fail because they do not possess the 

 constant practice and special science required for 

 such a style of pruning. Some eight or ten suc- 

 cessive operations are required in long pruning, all 

 requiring an exact appreciation, which does not 

 belong to the generality of gardeners. On the 

 other hand, close pruning has the immense ad- 

 vantages of simplicity and economy of time and 

 money. There are no tedious tyings-in of the 

 summer or winter wood. The main branches are 



