20 



MANAGEMENT OF 



standards, cannot plant them at a better age. 

 if the trees have made a strong growth, for the 

 shoots are alternately formed, and consequently 

 never crowd or injure each other, which is often 

 the case where a tree has been headed down, 

 unless it is carefully pruned ; but this the reader 

 will be more fully furnished with under the head 

 of pruning. 



The dwarfs, likewise, after one year's heading 

 down, will have formed shoots enough, and will 

 never be at a better age for planting. 



Although a few trees may have grown five or 

 six feet high, and make tolerable good standards 

 the second year, you seldom find many ; there- 

 fore after taking away as many half standards 

 as you may have occasion for, the March fol- 

 lowing begin to make your half standards into 

 standards, by cutting off all the side shoots, 

 leaving the upright shoot, cutting that off about 

 five feet six inches high, and some six feet, but 

 trees are none the better for being- too high in 

 the stem. 



After the next summer's growth, if the trees 

 are tolerably strong, and have formed a head of 



