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XXXV. Upon pruning and managing Dwarf Standard 

 Apple and Pear Trees in a Garden. In a Letter to the 

 Secretary. By Mr. William Greenshields, F. H. S. 



Read February 6, 1827. 



Sir, 



According to your desire, I send a description of the 

 method I have pursued in pruning and managing my Dwarf 

 Standard Apple and Pear Trees, and which I have practised 

 for several years with success. 



The first subjects of the following remarks, from their 

 appearance, were planted six or seven years previously to the 

 the commencement of any pruning being given them. In 

 consequence, they required to be very much thinned out, so as 

 to get the branches clear of each other. In thinning, I always 

 bore in mind to cut the old wood off close to the stem, or 

 branch it was attached to ; this prevented young wood spring- 

 ing afterwards. When the trees were thinned of the old shoots, 

 as above stated, the young side shoots were what is generally 

 termed spurred in, that is, they were so shortened, that only 

 two or three buds were left on them, and the leading top 

 shoots were shortened to half their length. 



The following and every succeeding year, the trees were 

 treated in the same manner as respects the young wood, till 

 they had acquired the desired height, when the leading shoots 

 were shortened, as the side shoots or spurs had been previ- 

 ously. When the leading shoots shew an inclination to grow 



