264 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Lorette pruning for maintenance. (1) Treatment of leading shoot or 
leader. This is the first operation of the year, and is undertaken in 
April, mid or late, indeed even in May, according to the situation, 
season, and soil. In any case, the Apple will be ready much later than 
the Pear. The criterion whereby the proper time is judged is the 
growth of side shoots from the pre-existent eyes to a length of about 
a couple of inches ; this shows that the sap is rising well. If the tree 
is still being trained and has not yet reached its full designed height, 
Lorette only pinches away the top few buds in cases where the tree is 
well sunned and exposed to the air ; on the other hand, if it is not so 
favourably situate, and is shaded, a quarter or half may be removed, 
for the eyes are not so full of vigour, and there is little risk of engender- 
ing the growth of numerous premature shoots. The object is to get the 
majority of the eyes to become " dards " at once. Here I may say that 
much depends upon the local habit of the variety ; in the soil of Here^ 
fordshire, such long pruning in fully exposed prolongations almost 
always fails to cause some nine or ten eyes to break, with the result 
that some 12 or 14 inches of bare wood with dormant eyes ensues, 
and is possibly the cause of so much unfurnished bare wood in planta- 
tions in the county. Perhaps ten or a dozen buds may be enough to 
leave, unless " notching " (" entaille " *) is made to awaken sleepers. 
If, on the other hand, the tree has attained the desired proportions, 
the leader is cut back to about J or f inch above its base (" sur empate- 
ment"). Several thin shoots will arise, and these are not interfered 
with. (See later.) 
(2) Treatment of fruiting branchlets (" coursonnes "). The objects 
in view are to keep the fruit branchlets as short as possible so that the 
fruit may be borne as close as possible to the supporting branch, to 
evoke the formations from stipulary eyes and so produce new fruit 
buds to replace old ones. These branchlets may be fertile when 
they will mostly give rise to some wood shoots, which will be the only 
formation on sterile ones. The criterion for judging when these shoots 
are ready for cutting is a semiligneous condition at the base : they are 
somewhat woody, but somewhat juicy withal. The proper moment 
is indicated by the physiological condition rather than by a particular 
date or a precise diameter or length attained. In his book, Lorette 
constantly speaks of performing on a shoot when it has reached the 
thickness of an ordinary pencil (about J inch). However, he told 
me that this guide was rather to be regarded in training operations 
than in general maintenance, and it will be patent that much will 
depend upon the habit of the variety under the hand. On a tree 
in full bearing and on open site, the shoots will be about 10 to 
12 inches in length, f as in the pruning I witnessed at Wagnonville, 
when perhaps none of the shoots removed was really of pencil- 
thickness. Where vegetation is still predominant and also in over- 
crowded or shaded parts of the tree, rather a greater length will 
* See appendix for definition of terms. 
t On a slow-growing variety like D'Arcy Spice 6-8 in. will be long enough. 
