482 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



must now be allowed to retain whatever fruitful 

 buds there are upon them, as a a, with the ex- 

 ception of the first spur upon the shoot, as b, 

 which must now be cut down to the lowest 

 bud, or entirely away. This is done in order to 

 obtain a new shoot. Those spurs upon that 

 part of the shoot produced the second year 

 after being trained in, as c c, will generally have 

 two or three fruit-bads each; they must be all 

 retained. The shoot B will now be furnished 

 with fruitful buds," but as it will sometimes 

 happen that a shoot or two will push instead of 

 fruitful buds being formed, such shoots must be 

 pruned back during summer to 2 inches, once 

 or more if required, which will cause them to 

 form fruitful buds at their lower parts. " The 

 shoots A A, fig. 215," which is the state of mat- 

 Fig. 215. 



HARRISON S MODE OF TRAINING. 



ters at the twelfth year, " must now be cut 

 away so far back as to the origin of the shoot b, 

 which shoot must be trained forward in order to 

 supply the place of the shoot A cut away. The 

 spurs upon the shoots B B will now generally 

 be well supplied with fruitful buds ; they must 

 be permitted to retain three each, and next 

 year four each, except the first upon the shoot, 

 which must at that time be cut down in order 

 to produce a new shoot for training in, as was 

 done to the shoots A A. The spurs which 

 afterwards proceed from these shoots, obtained 

 by thus cutting down spurs, must have the 

 same proportion of fruitful buds left upon them 

 at every winter-pruning, and also be treated in 

 every respect as already laid down for the spurs 

 which the preceding shoots supported. This 

 practice of cutting back the shoot A up to the 

 spur b must be done for the first renewal; but 

 when a new one is desired the second time, the 

 old shoot must be cut so far back as only to 

 leave about half an inch remaining, unless there 

 be a growing or fruitful bud situated near its 

 origin, when it must, in that case, be pruned off 

 just above it ; and a shoot must be nailed in 

 from some of the intermediate spurs, in order to 

 supply the vacancy caused by the removal of 

 the old shoot." 



Harrison very justly remarks, that pear trees 

 produce their fruit on spurs and buds simi- 

 lar to apples ; the first part of his practice, 

 which we have quoted above, is applicable to 

 them also, but, he continues, " one mode of 

 pruning is not alike suitable to all kinds of pear 

 trees." The St Germains, Brown beurre, Ber- 

 gamots, Swan's egg, &c, amongst pears, have 

 their spurs as far distant from each other as 

 apples have; while some other sorts, such as the 

 Crasane, Chaumontelle, &c, have their spurs 



very rank on the branches, and hence a differ- 

 ent mode of treatment is necessary, which leads 

 to the second part of our quotation bearing 

 upon the necessity of laying^ in a succession of 

 young wood, &c. 



Spur-pruning the apple and pear. — That both 

 these trees produce their fruit upon spurs is 

 true, and wherever natural spurs or fruit-buds 

 are produced, they should be carefully retained, 

 if not produced in too great numbers, in which 

 case they should be thinned out at the winter- 

 pruning. The creation of artificial spurs was 

 long the sheet-anchor of the cultivators of bygone 

 days, and consisted of annually, about midsum- 

 mer, cutting off every young shoot formed upon 

 the main branches to within about half an inch 

 of their base : some, however, were not very 

 particular as to dis- 

 tance; and hence, in 

 the course of a very 

 few years, immense 

 bundles of spray pro- 

 jected from the face of 

 their wall and espalier 

 trees a foot or more in 

 length, placing what 

 few fruit might by ac- 

 cident be produced at 

 such a distance from 

 the wall as to derive no 

 more benefit from it than if it had been pro- 

 duced on a standard tree. The case is now 

 different, and this spur- producing system is 

 considered obsolete by every cultivator of ordi- 

 nary understanding. The pear and the apple 

 both will produce better and more abundant 

 crops of fruit from natural buds formed on 

 shoots of two years' growth, if of a proper 

 character, and duly exposed to light during the 

 growing season, than upon all the artificial spurs 

 that can be created by the mismanagement of 

 man. To secure a supply of such wood, all that 

 is required is to select, at the July disbudding, 

 or summer-pruning as it is called, such a num- 

 ber of the shoots of the current year as can be 

 conveniently laid in, either between the perma- 

 nent branches or tied down over them, choos- 

 ing such as are short-jointed and changing to- 

 wards a brownish colour, which latter indicates 

 that they have nearly arrived at their full matu- 

 rity, and only require a short period longer to 

 complete the elaboration of their juices and the 

 formation of embryo fruit-buds. Green and 

 luxuriant shoots should be rejected and removed 

 at their base, either at the time of selection, or, 

 better, at the winter-pruning. These selected 

 shoots should be laid in regularly, but not too 

 thickly, all over the tree. The practice of Harri- 

 son, already given, bears upon this subjectforcibly, 

 and the no less high authority of Errington 

 bears similar testimony. On pear-pruning and 

 the tying-down system he says, " By this we 

 mean the reserving many of the annual shoots 

 at the winter-pruning, and tying or otherwise 

 fastening them down on the old wood. Pears, say 

 they, bear best on the two-year-old wood. Be it 

 so ; then let us take care that some of the annual 

 shoots reach two years. We have before advised 

 that all the shortest-jointed and early-ripened 



