By the Right Hon. William Wickham. 79 



having had time to ripen, and become hard before the return 

 of winter. Care also will be required in the manner of ma- 

 king the fracture, because, if the wood be split back to the 

 parent branch, the whole shoot will die, or if the bark be torn 

 further back than the first eye, no midsummer wood what- 

 ever will be produced from it, that summer, nor any spring 

 shoot in the following year. 



A sufficient supply of midsummer shoots being thus pro- 

 cured, during the summer, room must be made for them, at 

 the succeeding winter priming, by cutting away so much of 

 the old wood, as will admit of their being all trained in, at 

 full length, and nailed close to the wall, which should always 

 be done before the first severe frosts. Keeping this object in 

 view, the knife cannot well be used too freely in cutting 

 away the old wood, nor is there any reason to fear, that its free 

 use will either injure the future crops, or deprive the tree of 

 its regular supply of branches. The midsummer shoots 

 being trained in, each of them will produce, in the following 

 year, one spring shoot, at least, at its extremity, whilst another 

 will rise from each eye of the remnants of the old spring 

 shoots that had been preserved in the manner above de- 

 scribed, when these shoots were broken in the preceding 

 month of June. From this fresh supply, by pursuing the 

 system here explained, either wood or fruit, or both, may be 

 obtained, for the succeeding year, at the discretion of the gar- 

 dener. Where he wishes for wood, he must suffer these new 

 shoots to grow to their full length ; where fruit, and not wood, 

 is desired, he must break them in the month of June, in the 

 manner, and with the precautions, that have just been minutely 

 explained. 



