56 
iiig of the fruit will permit.” Future bearing shoots. The 
shoots intended for the next year’s bearing should be selected 
towards the end of May. The required number may be pretty 
nearly estimated, and they should be so situated as to have, when 
trained, a clear space of twenty-eight inches between each. This 
will afford a space of nine inches on each side of such shoots, 
when in bearing, in addition to five inches to be allowed on each 
side of the young succession shoots, which will have to be trained 
up, alternately, between them. Nailing should be repeated 
whenever the shoots have grown twelve inches beyond their last 
nail. If long jointed, they should be curved a little in training, 
by bending them from their former direction every time of nailing, 
which will occasion more buds to be produced in a given length. 
At the commencement of September, these future bearing shoots 
should be stopped ; that is, their points pinched off, to hasten 
the maturation of the wood, and to give an accumulation of 
sap to the buds. All Tc?^c^r^7s produced at the footstalks of 
the bunches of fruit should be pinched off. Side shoots, also, 
which are not bearers, should be pinched off an inch beyond the 
first joint. Those which are bearers, should, at the beginning of 
June, be pinched off an inch beyond the last bunch of fruit. 
The Leaves should be so disposed, as far as is possible, in such 
manner as to form a uniform shade or covering, one leaf thick- 
ness, over the whole tree. That the fruit have this genial shelter 
is indispensable. The Bunches of Fruit, when as large as 
small pease, should be counted, and their ultimate weight calcu- 
lated. Each bunch may be estimated at half a pound, and if 
the whole amount exceeds the stipulated weight, allowed by the 
preceding scale to be ripened, it must be reduced to such amount. 
Now, also, must the berries in each bunch be thinned, and such 
operation should be continued, weekly, as occasion requires. 
“ The best general rule that can be given, says Mr. Hoare, is 
that the berries, during the whole period of their grow th, until 
they have made their last sw ell, must never be suffered to cluster, 
or to press the sides of each other.” Autumn Pruning. This 
should be effected in October; when all the main shoots, which 
have just yielded their crop, must be cut out; remembering to 
leave a few of them as spurs, with two buds each, in proper situ- 
ations, to produce the succession shoots in the following spring. 
These spurs should, of course, be left alternately with the bearers. 
