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knots in it, or it will never swell out well ; and it 

 ought to be budded from 3 feet to 3^ feet high, ac- 

 cording to the height of the wall against which the 

 tree is to be placed ; if budded lower, those branches 

 near the ground become covered in the winter with 

 wet and dirt, which causes the bark to crack and the 

 branches to decay. If the tree is budded high enough 

 the branches will radiate in every direction, and those 

 that descend will be as fruitful as those that are horizon- 

 tal or perpendicular; and no part of the wood will suffer 

 excepting the ends of the descending branches, which 

 may be shortened during the winter-pruning, and they 

 will again fill the wall the following season. ( GareL 

 Chron. 1841, 166.) 



We must here remark that we cannot conceive the 

 plan adopted in the nurseries to be the best for obtain- 

 ing long-lived trees. The buds, for the most part, are 

 obtained from gross, young and watery shoots ; and 

 this, generation after generation ; the object being to 

 obtain showy trees, which generally sell the best. 

 We would therefore advise, in the choice of trees from 

 the nursery, not to be guided by mere strength, how- 

 ever specious it may appear, but to select those which 

 are high-coloured in the bark, short-jointed, and with 

 an equal division of strength on each side of the tree ; 

 preferring those which possess strong shoots, as the 

 lower arms with a centre of rather subordinate strength. 

 Not a single blemish should exist on any part of 



