SUMMER PRUNING AND TRAINING OF FRUIT-TREES. 117 



commonly known as " fan " training. They are all subject also to 

 the evil known as - ' gumming, ' ' a disease peculiar to stone fruits, but 

 which is more prone to attack them when the trees are subject 

 to hard winter pruning, instead of to judicious pruning during 

 the summer. The fruit-buds are formed on natural spurs, and 

 also on the spurs formed by pinching or summer pruning, but 

 the best course is to manage the trees so that these natural 

 spurs will form plentifully, as they are more likely to produce 

 both better and more abundant fruit than the pruned spurs are. 

 What we have to consider, therefore, is, which is the best system 

 to pursue so as to cause these natural spurs to form. 



Commencing, then, with young trees, the cultivator should 

 aim at securing a well-balanced tree, with fruit-bearing wood 

 equally distributed over the whole surface, bearing in mind to 

 get the wall also well furnished. All young trees when growing 

 against walls have a persistent habit of a few shoots or branches 

 trying to get quickly to the top of the wall at the expense of the 

 lower branches, and it is generally a few of the leading ones 

 towards the centre of the tree which acquire this habit. This 

 supplies its own lesson, viz. to check these strong shoots, so as 

 to throw the strength into the lower branches, for if this be not 

 attended to during the earlier stages of the tree's existence it 

 cannot be made to conform to it afterwards. The lower branches 

 may require but little shortening when first planted, but the 

 centre shoots must be checked, so as to secure a well-balanced 

 tree. I think it is also a bad practice with trees of the stone - 

 fruited section to train a shoot as a leader straight up the wall. 

 If a young tree had six shoots I should train three on each side, 

 leaving the centre open. If there should be an odd shoot, even 

 if it be started in the centre, it should be cut back more severely 

 than the rest, training the resulting growths right and left. 

 Some people are of opinion that the shoots of a young trained 

 tree when first planted should be laid in intact without shorten- 

 ing ; but if such trees succeed in forming well-balanced growth, 

 it will be found to be more the exception than the rule. It may 

 appear out of place to refer to the shortening of these dormant 

 shoots in a paper on summer pruning, but it is necessary 

 to describe the formation of a young tree. In training the 

 young shoots which are to form the main branches, each leader 

 should be trained to take a straight course, so that it will not 



