FRUIT-GROWING ON A LARGE SCALE. 



167 



manure nor the unexhausted value of any corn or cake which 

 may have been consumed on the land, and which would have to 

 be paid for on taking the land over from an outgoing tenant. 

 If the field is fenced in with wire netting, the cost of this would 

 also have to be added. 



Cost of Cultivation. — The cost of cultivating the different 

 crops of bush-fruit has already been given. In mixed plan- 

 tations labour will amount to £12 per acre, and £20 to 

 £30 per acre should cover labour, picking, manure, rent, 

 rates and taxes, marketing, interest on capital, and proportionate 

 amount of capital to be written off each year. If £30 per 

 acre is the capital expenditure, with a twenty-one years' lease, 

 after the first five years £2 per acre should be written off each 

 year, so that at the termination of the lease the capital account 

 is wiped off. 



Pruning. — In pruning Plum, Apple, and Pear trees the 

 great object should be to get a well-balanced head, and to let 

 plenty of light and air into the trees. Trees, when they are 

 planted, are best cut back in the spring to five or six eyes, care 

 being taken to cut to an outside eye. After the first year the 

 trees do not require cutting back so hard, though the leading 

 shoots will require shortening each year, and all cross-shoots 

 must be removed. As the trees grow older some of the larger 

 branches will have to be cut out to prevent overcrowding. By 

 judicious pruning finer fruit is obtained and the tree is kept in a 

 more healthy state. In pruning pyramid trees the same remarks 

 apply ; this class of tree, as soon as it commences bearing, re- 

 quires less pruning than the standards. 



Cherries will not bear pruning, and all that is necessary is 

 to cut the trees back the year after they are planted, and after- 

 wards to remove the cross -shoots each year. 



A useful instrument for pruning standard trees is the 

 Standard Tree Primer (price 7s. 6d. with 8-foot handle), to which 

 a longer handle may be fixed, enabling very tall trees to be 

 pruned from the ground. 



If the trees make too luxuriant a growth they should be 

 root-pruned. This should be done with great care, and the 

 fibrous roots round the stem of the tree should not be disturbed. 

 A trench should be cut from 8 to 6 feet from the tree according 

 to its size, and the coarser or wood-forming roots cut through. 



