MANAGEMENT OF FRUIT TREES, &c. 11 



ards. Those which you intend for Standards should be pre- 

 pared in the following manner. The year before you mean to 

 transplant them, cut in the side-shoots at different lengths, from 

 one foot to three, according to the size of the trees ; suffering 

 them to grow rude all the summer, neither nailing-in nor cut- 

 ting the side and foreright shoots. Some time during the win^ 

 ter open the ground round their roots, and cut in the strong 

 ones (which will cause them to put forth fine young fibres) ; then 

 fill in the earth. In the following autumn, or during the win- 

 ter (the sooner the better), ycu may transplant them out as 

 Standards^. If you intend to plant them against a wall, ne- 

 ver cut the side-shoots, but only the roots ; by this method the 

 trees will bear fruit the first year after transplanting, and there 

 will be a great saving of time and money. I have often trans- 

 planted old Plum-trees that have been headed down, that have 

 made very fine roots, which I have divided, and thereby ob- 

 tained four or five trees from one, cutting them so as to form 

 them into fine heads. Some that were transplanted in 1798 

 were in full blossom in 1799, producing some fruit, and this 

 year (1800) bearing a full crop. 



The ground in the borders and quarters where fresh trees 

 are to be planted should be well trenched, two spits deep at 

 least, to give the roots room to run into the fresh-stirred 

 ground. 



When you plant trees without stirring the mould, they 

 seldom thrive well. 



When Plum-trees are planted for Standards in an orchard 

 which is to be kept for grass, they should be in rows at the 

 distance of twenty yards from each otherf . If in the kitchen 

 garden for Standards, I would always recommend the plant- 

 ing of Dwarfs. You may train the tree up to have a stem of 

 about three feet high, at the distance of seventeen yards. If 

 the garden is laid out with cross-walks, or foot-paths, about 

 three feet wide, make the borders six feet broad, and plant the 

 trees in the middle of them. In the Royal gardens at Ken- 

 sington, which are very long and narrow, ?nd where the winds 



* In transplanting of trees, especially large ones, I consider it to be of 

 great consequence, that they be placed in the same position (that is, having 

 the same parts facing the same points of the compass) as formerly. If you 

 take notice when a tree is cut down, you will nnd that three parts in four of 

 the growth are on the North side. 



t The directions, contained in this paragraph exactly apply to America; 

 but almost all the rules relative to planting and pruning wall trees, apply 

 equally to standards ; and as the author has, in general, given his directions 

 an speaking of wall-trees, I'le American reader will be careful not to overlook 

 t)iem, merdy because they are not repeated in speaking of standard-trees. 



