216 T HE FRUIT-GARDEN. [March. 
Pruning and training young Apple, Pear, Plum and Cherry Trees 
for Espaliers and Walls. 
Any young dwarf apples, pears, plums, and cherry trees, lately 
planted against walls or espaliers, &c. or still remaining in the 
nursery, with their first shoots, of only a year or two old, entire, 
should now be pruned down to a few eyes, that they may put out 
some good shoots near the ground, to furnish the bottom of the 
wall or espalier therewith. 
If the heads of these trees are but one year's growth from the 
bud or graft, let them be shortened to four or five eyes; observing 
to do it just as they begin to form buds for shooting. 
Suppose they are two years from the bud or graft, and the first 
shoots were cut down, as above, last spring; let the shoots which 
were produced from them the last summer be also shortened now, 
to six, eight, or ten inches. 
The same rule holds good with these, at first training, as men- 
tioned for the apricots and peaches; for it is on shortening properly 
the first and second year's shoots, from the budding and grafting, 
that the whole success depends for forming a useful handsome 
tree; as when a young wall or espalier tree is well furnished with 
branches near the ground, these will readily supply you with more 
in their turn, to furnish the wall or espalier upwards. 
But in the common course of pruning apples, pears, plums, and 
cherries, their shoots and branches are not to be shortened; for 
after the young trees are furnished with a proper supply of branches 
below, their shoots must then be trained to the wall at full length, 
only shortening particular shoots when more wood may be required 
to furnish that part, or where they grow too crowded; as directed 
in page 25, &c. 
Pruning Fig-Trees. 
Some prune fig trees, the latter end of autumn, which is a very 
wrong practice, where severe winter frosts are prevalent; as the 
young shoots, which are the only bearing wood, are liable to be killed 
in hard winters. If they were pruned in that season, and no more 
left than what might then appear necessary, and severe frosts af- 
terwards destroy many of those, you would have no resource left. 
Therefore, the better way is, to let the trees remain unpruned 
till this time, and if some had been killed by the severity of the 
winter, there will be a chance from among the whole, to find a 
sufficiency for your purpose, that have escaped. Observing how- 
ever, that the sooner this work is done after the severe frosts are 
over the better; for if delayed too long, the trees would bleed and 
be injured thereby; but in the southern states, the late autumn prun- 
ing is preferable. 
Fig trees agree with, and in fact require, great heat; consequently, 
in the eastern and middle states, they will thrive and bear better 
when planted against walls, board fences, or espaliers, in warm ex- 
