456 
THE TROPICAL AGIlICULTUEIST. 
[Jan. 2, 1899. 
and of comparatively insifiiQifiuaut length. But the 
object which the gardener has in view in the training 
of these trees is that the wall or espalier shall be 
well covered by the tree, and the Hp*ce available 
thoroughly economised, so thit the tree must hence- 
forth, from its youngest state onwards, pursue a 
horizontal rather than a vertical direction of growth. 
It will thus be seen that the tree departs from its 
natural habit of growth, not only by this horizontal 
development of the lateral branches "at the expense 
of the main stem or leader, but also in the fact that the 
lateral branches are allowed to develop in one plane 
only, vix., that of the long extension of the wall or es- 
palier. Few forms could be more unnatural or more 
utterly unlike the habit of the tree in its native state; 
and the fact that the tree will submit to this and other 
almost equally artificial methods of training, and bear 
good fruit, argues that fruit trees have been under train- 
ing and cultivation for untold generations, and have 
thus become gradually inured to such severe treat- 
ment, 
The young grafted tree, at an early age, is topped, 
or shortened, for several inches, which interruption 
in the normal flow of the sap upwards causes the 
latter to accumulate in greater abundance at the place 
of insertion of the uppermost lateral eyes or buds, 
and from these to induce the precocious development 
of lateral branches, while a new leader is allowed 
to develop from the highest bud or not, as the case 
may be. Supposing the leader to grow upward rapidly 
again after this treatment, it must the following winter 
be again topped in order to stait a second pair of 
laterals above the first formc^d, and so on year after 
year, the pruning always being performed in the 
winter-time, when the active life of the plant is 
suspended, and when, therefore, there is less fear 
of interfering with its vitality and its proper course 
of growth. 
The lateral branches are not to be shortened at all in 
the case of most hardy fruit trees with vigorous 
growth, but are to be allowed to grow right ahead 
as far as space will permit. If shorteuii.g took place, 
the sap, instead of being evenly and equally dislri • 
buted throughtout the whole length and thickness of 
the branch, would be thvvarteJ in its natural course, 
And induced to accumulate to excess in the lateral 
buds or eyes, especially those near the end of the 
pruned branch, and these eyes being caused to shoot, 
the result would be, instead of the fruit-spurs which 
would naturally have appeared all along the untouched 
branch, a great production of tertiarv woody shoots 
and a consequent absence or great reduction of fruit- 
forming twigs. The topping ,of any leading shoot 
inevitably induces the formation of lateral members — 
a wise provision of Nature for the continuance of 
the temporarily thwarted vegetative growth of the 
shoot, but vrhich is exceeclingly detrimental to all 
immediate fruit-forming capacity, and thus to be 
avoided by the cultivator. Certain kinds of trees, 
however, such as the Peach, Nectarine, Apricot, which 
are less vigorous and active in their growth, owing 
perhaps to the fact that they hail from under more 
southern skies, are not nearly so liable to the forma- 
tion of woody outgrowths when their lateral to shoots 
are shortened; hence, where found advantageous, 
this practice may with these more frequently be in- 
dulged in, 
If it is desired to form a " pyramid," the same 
process of topping of the young budded tree must 
be practised, and a number of branches induced to 
develop all round the stem, which must be kept at 
even distances apart, and proportionate in lengfh, so 
that the lowest are always the longest and stion^est, 
otherwise the pyramidal form will not be retained. 
To obtain this result, the lateral branches will i-equira 
carefully watching and training, and frequent shorten- 
ing to the proportionate distance?, otherwise they will 
naturally tend to grow irregularly iu length and in 
direction. 
In the formation of standards by pruning, the main 
object is to obtain a well-formed symmetrical head or 
crown. After the young tree has reached a certain 
Jj^ight, its naturdl growth is severely interrupted antj 
Buppreesed, owing to the fact that henceforth a number 
of spiially-arranged lateral brancheii are caused to 
develop from the uppermost eyes, entirely at the 
expense, and to the ultimate complete extinction of. 
any farther growth iu length of the main mother' 
stem. 
The latter is first of all topo.:d. in order to induce 
the ont-growtli of the latei^r shoots, but not in the 
m.'.iu.or described for the "pyramid," close above an 
eye, but some little distance above, so as to leave 
a blind stump. By this means the topmost eye of 
tlie mother-stem will be caused to grow in an obliquely 
ascending direction upward, as an uppermost laterj 
snoot, instead of formmK a vortical contiimution of the 
main axis as it would do if no htuuip were left, 
ihu second service performed bf the biuuip is to 
draw for a time some of the sap away from the 
topmost eye, and so prevent its developlne too 
viKoiously and more strongly than the others 
i^venlually the stamp must be removed. Tnie same 
kind of topping mast be adopted, with all the lateral 
and evry succeeding shoH iu the sime way, until 
aftei- the tree has for a few vears been put throuch ite 
ft°elf >t is eventually left entirely to 
These are the three principal types of the artificial 
form to which fruit trees are tniiued in the garden 
As we have seen, the desin-d form luuat be early 
induced in the young tree, when its tisMues are as yet 
plastic and yielding, for it uoes without fiviiie tiiat 
It IS difficult to force an older trpe, especially when 
It has begun to form fruit, into a habit of Vowth 
to which It is entirely unaccustomed. 
One main object of the trainiug of fruit-trees into 
various shapes is, of course, to please the eye ■ it it 
elegance or strangeness of form which we d-aire to' see • 
but the chief object of the cuUiv.ttion of fruit-trees ia 
the production of fruit. We have uo wish to see 
an abundanc.' of fine fruit developed on an uucomelr 
tree; but neither do we wish to see a beautifully 
formed tree with a paucity of fruit. The ideal towardi 
which we have to strive is a mingling of the two 
characters; the abundant production ot fine frait and 
an elegance of form in the tree. And the elegance of 
form of the tree (at least, in its youuger i^tate), and the 
quality, if not qriantity of the fruit which it bears, must 
be superior to what wefi idin Nature.— \V. C. Woas- 
DELL, F.L.s. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
( To he contiiiHcd.) 
Dutch Government Cinchow Plantations. 
— We have room this week for the inseition of a 
short paragraph relating to a part of the report 
(mentioned last week) on the Java cinchona 
plantation-^ of the Dutch Government. The 
returns and e.\pendiniro are ite tis iJiat merit 
further notice. Tiie totU expenditure iu JS97 w.as 
equal to about j£7,68;). of which about 5-9 was 
incurred ii new build iegs and repairs. The 
estimates exceeded tlii.= e.xpenditiiie by £155. In 
1896 the expenditure was about £7,55 ». These 
li^'uies work oat a cost per ib. of 2 3-oJ in 1897 
against 2 5-1 Id in 1896. The gr-ss ivtnrns for the 
crop of 1896 amounted to about £17,644 at the 
sales in Amsterdam, with a proht of abjut £8 100 
to which has to be ad.l?d profit made by sales in 
the East Indies, which brings the total' profits to 
abouc £8,300. The exi endituie of about 2 5-lld 
has to iiave added 6-lld for freight and cotnmi^sion 
on sales, winch in.akes the cost of the bark per lb 
to the Governujent 3 2-lld. Deduct this from the 
average price obtained per lb.— namely, 5 9 Ud— 
a,nd we see that a net profit of nearly' 2 7-1 Id per 
lb. remains, which seems a very satisfacto-y 
m-irgiti. We have rendered Dutch sums and 
weights into Eugiish equivalents al! through this 
paragraph into as near absolute accuracy as makes 
no matter.— .B. and C, Druggist, Dec. 12. 
