39G 



HARDY FRUIT GARDEN. 



channel for the sap, the strongest shoot will form 

 there, and thus afford the means of continuing the 

 leaders to a great height, and for a great length of 

 time, without crossing or obstructing each other, 

 or throwing out useless collaterals. At the same 

 time, by the depressed position of the leading 

 branches, enough sap will be pushed out on their 

 sides to form and maintain vigorous fruiting 

 spurs. As trees trained in this manner need 

 never exceed the bounds allotted them on a 

 border or bed, a greater number of trees may 

 be planted, and a greater quantity of fruit pro- 

 duced in a given space, than can be the case 

 when they are trained in any other manner. 

 But as pear and apple trees on free stocks may 

 be found to grow too rude and large after a few 

 years, those best answer which are grafted on 

 dwarf-growing stocks — that is, pears on quince 

 stocks, and apples on paradise stocks. How- 

 ever, to keep dwarf trees from growing too lux- 

 uriant and rude, it is a good practice to take 

 them up and replant them every three or four 

 years. If this is done with due care as soon as 

 the leaves are off the trees in the fall of the 

 year, it will not injure them, nor prevent them 

 bearing a full crop of fruit the following year." 

 Three to four branches we have found to suc- 

 ceed much better than six, which, unless the 

 circle be large, causes crowding and want of 

 light and air to the inner side of the trees. We 

 do not anticipate that trees trained in this form 

 will continue long productive towards the base 

 of the branches ; but, on the other hand, suc- 

 cessive ones might be brought in — the old spurs 

 being cut clean away, and the branch made a 

 conductor for a young shoot procured near its 

 base, or grafted on it by the side-grafting process. 



The horizontal mode of training may be said 

 to be entirely confined to the gardens of Britain. 

 Neither the French, Dutch, Germans, or Ameri- 

 cans practise it ; and they, with ourselves, may 

 be considered the only nations where training 

 becomes necessary, or is cared for in the culture 

 of fruit. Hitt, if not the inventor of this me- 

 thod, was certainly the first to reduce it to sys- 

 tem and practice. He employed it in various 

 forms, and subsequent cultivators have added to 

 or varied it also. It is the mode which, with 

 the exception of the pendulous, places the tree 

 under most constraint, and removes it farthest 

 from its natural position. There are two objec- 

 tions to this mode ; namely, the length of time 

 required for a tree to attain the height of the 

 wall or espalier, as in general it only makes an 

 increase in height of from 9 to 12 inches yearly — 

 that is, the distance between each horizontal 

 branch. The other is : should one of the three 

 eyes, at which we are directed to cut back the 

 perpendicular leader, get injured, or not break, 

 we must then lose one of the side branches, for 

 a leader cannot be dispensed with ; and, conse- 

 quently, a blank is left on one side or the other 

 which is not readily rectified. To obviate this 

 defect, it has been proposed to combine the fan 

 form with the horizontal. Of these proposals 

 the most novel is that suggested by Mr Green, 

 and published in " The Gardeners' Magazine," 

 vol. viii. p. 539. For a wall under 20 feet in 

 length, he would plant a pear tree, for example, 



GREEN'S MODt OF TRAINING. 



at one end of the wall, at a, fig. 157, and 

 striking a line from b to c, the one near the top, 

 and the other 

 Fig. 157. . near the bot- 

 £ torn of the wall, 

 he would then 

 train all the 

 shoots to one 

 side after the 

 fan manner, 

 bending the 

 shoots where 

 they intersect 

 the line, as 

 shown in our 

 figure, into the 

 horizontal di- 

 rection. In the 

 case of walls of 

 greater length, 

 he would plant 

 the tree as in 

 ordinary cases, 

 striking two 

 lines from the 

 top to the bot- 

 tom of the wall, 

 as indicated in 

 _ fig.l58,bye/#, 

 Z. training the 

 tree in the fan 

 manner as be- 

 fore, and giv- 

 ing the branch- 

 es a horizontal direction at the points where 

 they severally intersect the two lines e g and ef. 

 It is easy to suppose how, upon the same princi- 

 ple, trees couldbe trained taking a perpendicular 

 direction. We notice this mode more on ac- 

 count of its novelty than its utility or beauty. 



The principal objects in training fruit trees 

 are, to place the branches so that the sap may 

 be under the control of the cultivator ; to place 

 the leaves so that they may be presented with 

 greatest advantage to light and air ; to expose 

 the fruit to the same influence ; to place them, 

 when grown, against walls, so that they may 

 enjoy a greater degree of heat, by its being radi- 

 ated from the wall, than were they grown as 

 standards or open espaliers, on which no radi- 

 ated heat can be expected. The constraint im- 

 posed upon the tree by its branches being fast- 

 ened to a wall or espalier tends to moderate its 

 growth, and hence, instead of making much 

 wood, a disposition is brought on for the forma- 

 tion of fruit-buds. Branches which are loose, 

 and capable of being moved by the wind, grow 

 more luxuriantly than such as are fixed to an- 

 other body, and hence, all other circumstances 

 being equally favourable, trees so trained are 

 more productive of fruit than such as are left 

 in their natural position. Training in a per- 

 pendicular direction is more favourable for the 

 luxuriant growth of trees, than when they are 

 trained horizontally, and much more so than 

 when they are caused to grow in a pendant 

 form. This accounts for the practice of elevat- 

 ing the direction of one branch, and depress- 

 ing that of another, when they are of unequal 



