THE PEAK 



481 



keep the fruit-spurs very short, never allowing 

 one spur to have more than three or four fruit- 

 buds. He also cuts off the spurs entirely, or 

 cuts them down for renewal every fourth or 

 fifth year. By this means he has much larger 

 fruit, and each spur is allowed to bear only 

 once, when it is cut out, and succeeded by an 

 embryo bud at its base. As an illustration of 

 this part of his judicious practice, we subjoin 

 fig. 213 from his useful work, which exhibits 

 the condition of a portion of a branch of a pear 

 tree during the twelfth year of his routine. 

 "The spurs No. 1 must now be cut down to 

 two fruitful buds, as a a fig. 213, which will 



HARRISON S HI ODE OF TRAIN 7 1 NO. 



cause an embryo or more, as b 6, either to push 

 the following summer, or to swell considerably, 

 so as certainly to push after the old part of the 

 spur has been pruned away. At the next win- 

 ter-pruning it must be cut down to the lowest 

 fruitful or growing bud, 

 if there be such situ- 

 ated about an inch from 

 the branch which sup- 

 ports the spur,otherwise 

 the spur must be cut 

 down to about half an 

 inch from its origin. It 

 will sometimes happen 

 that when one of the 

 spurs is cut down, three 

 or four fruitful buds 

 or shoots will arise 

 around that part whicli 

 is left, o&d d,k k. If they are fruitful buds, they 

 must all be allowed to remain until the next 

 winter-pruning, when they will generally be in 

 the condition described by d k. In thinning 

 them, all must be taken away except two, which 

 two should be the strongest and best matured ; 

 and if they be situated at the opposite side of 

 the old spur, as c c, they must be preferred to 

 those that are closer together, as k k ; for when 

 that is the case they interfere with and injure 

 each other. When those spurs which remain 

 come to have lateral spurs, as spur e, one of 

 the main spurs must be cut away, g, the spur 

 to the left. When shoots are produced instead 

 of fruitful buds, as represented by d d, k k, they 

 must be pruned down once, or more if required, 

 during summer, and at the winter-pruning they 

 must be regulated agreeably to the foregoing 

 directions. It will frequently be the case that 

 a fruitful bud will be formed at the lower part 

 of such a shoot. If two shoots, situated in the 



manner of the buds c c, have each a fruitful bud 

 at its base, both of them may be left, but other- 

 wise only one. If none of the shoots should 

 have a fruitful bud, then two of them, situated 

 as before described, must be left, and be cut 

 down to the lowest-growing bud upon them; 

 and when a shoot pushes the next summer, it 

 must be nailed down in the direction described 

 by h, which will cause it to form a fruit-bud at 

 its origin, as i, and at the next winter-pruning 

 the shoot must be cut off just above such fruit- 

 ful bud. This method of nailing down shoots 

 during the summer, in order to make them pro- 

 ductive of fruitful buds, may be practised upon 

 any part of the tree when circum- 

 stances require it. When the spurs 

 thus cut down and regulated have 

 borne fruit a proper length of time, 

 they must then be cut down to the 

 lowest bud, or entirely cut away, 

 as the case requires. These instruc- 

 tions must also be attended to in 

 every other spur, upon every part of 

 ^&C £ 0* B ' the tree, at a similar age and state." 



Of the great advantage of laying 

 in young wood as practised by Mr 

 Harrison, there can be but one opi- 

 nion — it keeps up a succession of 

 young wood on the trees, from which 

 only fine fruit can be expected, and gets at once 

 rid of these cumbersome anduseless masses of old 

 spurs which long were allowed to disfigure the 

 wall and espalier trees in even our best gardens. 

 Fig. 214 exhibits the appearance of a branch of 



Fig. 214. 



HARRISON S IUODK OF TRAINING. 



a tree so treated during the tenth and eleventh 

 years of Mr Harrison's routine, and fig. 215 its 

 appearance in the twelfth year. " The spurs upon 

 that part of each shoot which were produced " 

 by being nailed or laid in previous seasons, 

 "will now have borne fruit one season; they 

 must be allowed to retain all the fruitful buds 

 there are upon them ; there will generally be 

 two or three, as at a a, c c. If the shoots (which 

 pushed from the spurs) that were shortened 

 during last summer should now have a fruitful 

 bud at the bottom of them, they must be cut 

 off just above each bud. If there should not be 

 a fruitful bud, let such shoots be cut down to 

 half an inch in length." If the young shoots 

 laid in " should extend so as to crowd each other, 

 let their ends be pruned back so far as they in- 

 terfere, at which they must afterwards be kept, 

 by cutting them back to that part every summer 

 and winter pruning. 



" All the spurs upon the shoots, fig. 214, A A, 



