88 



FRUIT TREES. 



suit of tHs mode of treatment, and of the conditions 

 laid down, will be a quick formation of small branches, 

 extending from the base to the summit of the stem, 

 and covered with fruit-spurs, also some wood- shoots, 

 &c. ; these latter must be cut off every year above 

 their foundations. As these little branches will be- 

 come very numerous, and produce confusion, some of 

 them must be cut back every year, but only here and 

 there, for fear of concentrating too much the action of 

 the sap upon too small a space, and thus injuring the 

 formation of fruit-spurs. 



M. Choppin completes his series of operations by 

 applying to the stem a number of annular incisions, 

 with the view of restraining the flow of sap in the 

 lower part of the tree, and diminishing its too great 

 vigour. The first incision is made about ten inches 

 above the graft, towards the fourth year of pruning ; 

 the other incisions must be applied from time to time 

 as required. The more vigorous the tree, the more 

 frequent and numerous the incisions. 



That which most characterises this mode of pruning 

 is, that the summer operations of pinching and disbud- 

 ding are never practised. All the shoots are allowed 

 to develop freely. If the more vigorous of them were 

 pinched off, the sap not having, as in the preceding 

 forms, a great space to run through, would be checked 

 in its course, and cause the small branchlets to shoot 

 out and become vigorous woody branches, which would 

 otherwise have remained simple twigs. 



