278 JOUENAL OF THE KOYAL HOETICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 
if he wishes, he may gain practical instruction in pruning, so that in the 
next generation the above reasons for neglected orchards should not be 
valid. 
With old orchards a mistake is often made in giving trees too severe a 
pruning all at once. It is far better to do it in two or three instalments 
— say at yearly intervals — as then there is not the same probability of 
giving too severe a check to the roots. The first year the lower or under 
branches, which are quite shaded by other branches above them, should be 
removed ; the next year the shaded branches in the centre of the tree ; and. 
I 
Fig. 148. — The ' Eckhnvii.le ' pkunei>. 
if spread to the third year, the worsi placed outer branches which are cross- 
ing each other, or which show a tendency to grow towards the centre. Then 
we should get all the fruiting wood exposed to the sun and air, and from this 
wood obtain the best quality fruit. Apples grown in the shade are 
generally poor in flavour if used for dessert, and if \dntage fruit, it pro- 
duces a thin poor cider. As a " Zummerzet " man remarked at one of our 
demonstrations : " That's it, zur, cut out aal them middle branches, vor 
we doiint never get no good zuyder vrom none o' thay zhady fruit." 
This was in an orchard where the trees were about forty years old, and 
had never been pruned since they were planted. They were raised from 
