98 



THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 



of every 'shoot as soon as it has made six leaves, leav- 

 ing five. The stem must be kept quite clear from 

 young shoots. By the autumn, nice round-headed 

 trees will be formed, and about the end of October 

 they should be taken up (their leaves cut off, if they 

 have not fallen) and placed in a cellar — no matter if 

 dark, but a light dry cellar would be preferable — some 

 earth should be placed over their roots, and there 

 they may remain till the first week in May, when 

 they should be planted out, and the same routine of 

 culture followed. They will bear one good crop of 

 fruit in a season, and ripen it in September,. This 

 annual removal brings on great sturdiness of growth 

 in the tree, and the roots becomes so fibrous as to hold 

 a large quantity of earth, which should not be shaken 

 from them when they go into their annual winter 

 abode. In the year 1857 I saw fine trees thus treated 

 in the garden of the Duke of Altenburg, in Central 

 Germany ; their stems were as stout as a man's leg 

 and their heads full of fruit ; and this season, ] 865, 

 my fig-trees, taken up last October, and placed in the 

 orchard-house during the winter — their roots in the 

 soil — have given me a crop of very rich, well-ripened 

 fruit. The roots that have borne best are the Brown 

 Ischia, Brown Turkey, and Brunswick. 



THE BIENNIAL REMOVAL OE FRUIT TREES WITHOUT 

 ROOT-PRUNING-. 



For some few years past I have felt a growing con- 

 viction that peach trees trained against walls in the 

 usual manner, without careful root cultivation, can- 

 not, in our climate, be kept in a state at all healthy 



