THE PRUNING AND TRAINING OF FRUIT TREES IN JAPAN. 583 



any other system, such as palmettes, cordons, etc. Moreover, the 

 symmetry of the tree can be easily restored even when arms are lost 

 by somie accident, just as in fan-training. 



Oanes last for about five years, whilst straw fastenings have to be 

 renewed every year during the winter. 



Branches, shoots and fruit-spurs undergo renewal-pruning at times 

 during the winter. In some parts, where trees are planted on rich, 

 deep alluvial deposits, they are shifted and transplanted at intervals of 

 four or five years, to check and moderate their over-luxuriance and 

 improve their fruiting. 



Besides repairing and tying new shoots on the trellis, light winter 

 pruning is performed. Many growers do no summer pruning. Fruit- 

 thinning, bagging and destroying insects are vigorously practised by 

 them. Of late years poultry and sometim.es pigs are driven beneath 

 the trees to feed on insects and other vermin. In such cases some 

 strong protection around the trees is of course necessary. 



There are different ways of constructing the bamboo trellis. In 

 the pear centres in the vicinity of Tokio the trellis entirely covers the 

 plantation, whilst in orchards near Kyoto and Nara it is divided into 

 long rectangles which run parallel to each other. Between these, 

 long narrow spaces are left which are used as paddy fields (fig. 171). In 

 the growing season of the rice the water stands close up to the roots 

 of the trees, the difference of height between the tree crown and the 

 water level being only one foot. The soil here is very clayey, and the 

 roots of the pears remain near the surface. Consequently, the trees 

 show signs of bearing while quite young, but they dwindle away some 

 ten to fifteen years after they are planted. Thus, the trees begin to 

 bear in the second year from planting, and growers let them fruit at 

 this early period. They, indeed, desire to get some return from them 

 as soon as possible. Shoots emerging' beneath the trellis are all re- 

 tained so as to have as large a yield as possible. Thus, the outlines 

 of trained pear trees differ widely in the two districts of the east and 

 tlie west. The relative merits of these two systems of ** tana " are 

 still open to discussion and disputed among growers. Besides 

 pears, plums and vines can be properly trained by this system. Plums 

 have been grown lately by this method in Terada-mura, near Kyoto. 

 All fruit trees which bear on fruit-spurs can be similarly trained. 

 By this mode of training it is clear that early and profuse bearing can 

 be ensured, but only with light pruning. 



In some parts of West Japan where pears are grown on steep hill- 

 sides, " tana " being made along the slope so as to cover the hillside, 

 the leaf canopy covering the trellis protects the crop growing beneath 

 it against heavy winds. In this case the fruiting portion is mainly 

 found under the trellis. 



Grapes, until recently, have been exclusively tana-trained (figs. 172, 

 .173). The remarkable success of this method is seen in the growing 

 centres of Katsunuma, Iwai, and other villages in Prov nce Kai, and in 

 the Katashita vineyard not far from Osaka. In the former, vines are 

 planted wide apart at the rate of 40 trees to the acre, while in the latter 



