TO INDUCE FRUITFULNESS. 
33 
conical form, full of fruit branches, and producing abundantly. 
Those dwarf trees, thus annually root pruned, he supplies abun- 
dantly with manure at the ends of the roots, thus keeping up 
their health and vigour. The plan is an admirable one for 
small gardens, or for amateurs who wish to grow a great many 
sorts in a small surface. Mr. Rivers, in a pamphlet on this 
subject, enumerates the following among the advantages of sys- 
tematic root 'pruning. 
“ 1. The facility of thinning, (owing to the small size of the 
trees,) and, in some varieties, of setting the blossoms of shy- 
bearing sorts, and of thinning and gathering the fruit. 
“2. It will make the gardener independent of the natural soil 
of his garden, as a few barrowsful of rich mould will support a 
tree for a lengthened period, thus placing bad soils nearly on a 
level with those the most favourable. 
“3. The capability of removing trees of fifteen or twenty 
years’ growth, with as much facility as furniture. To tenants 
this will indeed be a boon, for perhaps one of the greatest an- 
noyances a tenant is subject to, is that of being obliged to leave 
behind him trees that he has nurtured with the utmost care.” 
In conclusion, Mr. Rivers recommends caution ; “ enough of 
vigour must be left in the tree to support its crop of fruit, and 
one, two, or three seasons’ cessation from root pruning, will often 
be found necessary.” 
Root pruning in this country will, we think, be most valuable 
in its application to common standard trees, which are thrifty, 
but bear little or no fruit. They will generally be found to re- 
quire but a single pruning to bring them into a permanently 
fruitful condition ; and some sorts of Pears and Plums, which 
do not usually give a fair crop till they are twelve or fourteen 
years old, may be brought into fruit by this means as soon as 
they are of proper size. Several nearly full grown peach, pear, 
and plum trees, on a very rich soil on the Hudson, which were 
over-luxuriant but bore no fruit, were root pruned by our advice 
two years ago, and yielded most excellent and abundant crops 
last season. 
In the case of Apple orchards, where the permanent value 
depend^ on the size, longevity , and continued productiveness of 
the trees, it is better to wait patiently and not resort to pruning 
to bring them into bearing ; as it cannot be denied that all 
excessive pruning shortens somewhat the life of a tree. Mr. 
Coxe, indeed, recommended that the first fruit should never be 
allowed to ripen on a young apple orchard, as it lessens very 
materially the vigour of the trees. 
Shortening-in the shoots of Peaches, Nectarines, and Apricots, 
as we shall hereafter point out, has a strong tendency to increase 
the fruitfulness of these trees, since by reducing the young wood, 
the sap accumulates in the remainder of the branch, and many 
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