47 
they are then transferred to the cistern for the general mixture, 
adding three times the quantity of soot water. Guano after the 
rate of four ounces to a gallon, is then stirred well into the mass 
and when settled, and perfectly clear, it is fit for use. My maxim 
is to merely colour the water with this mixture, using about half 
a pint to a large three-gallon water pot. Clean water should, I 
think, alternate with it about every third watering; but above all, 
let the mixture be rendered clear. 
278 Winter Pruning. (R. Errington.) Before we proceed with 
directions for training, disbudding, stopping, &c., of fruit trees 
in general, we may, perhaps, not inappropriately offer a few 
simple and practical remarks on winter priming, which will at 
least be seasonable. There are certain principles, in winter 
pruning, which are applicable to all our hardy fruit trees 
intended fora dwarfing system in the kitchen garden; there are 
others also, peculiar to the same trees, in a more advanced state ; 
more especially, if trained on walls, or espalier rails. Under a 
dwarfing, or kitchen garden system, the young shoots must be 
shortened back annually, at the winter pruning, in order to fur- 
nish the whole of the tree with natural spurs as it extends; such 
trees, however, in ordinary orchards, will do, in the main, with a 
slight thinning, to prevent suffocation; or rather to enable the 
tree to produce fruit equal in quality, and size, in all its parts. 
Here, size or extension of the tree is the primary object; not 
so the espalier or dwarf tree, in the kitchen garden, which if 
permitted to extend widely would soon become barren in the 
lower parts, besides injuring the vegetables or flowers around 
it. To lay down rules for shortening back young shoots is 
impossible, so much depending on the strength, degree of ripe- 
ness, and general character of the tree. From nine inches to a 
foot, as a general rule, may be allowed until the tree attains the 
maximum height. The thinning of the branches or young 
sprays, must keep pace with the shortening; this, however, 
must not be carried to a great extreme, for a few years at the 
first, as mere provisional branches may be suffered to remain 
for four or five years, bearing a tolerable amount of fruit, and 
may then be removed. Early autumn pruning is, doubtless, 
much to be recommended; for the action of the root, even in 
deciduous trees, being continuous, (perhaps not dormant a day 
if in health,) there is a rising current of sap, more or less, 
264. AUCTARIUM. 
