90 
MASTODON COTTON.-NO. 2. 
The most choice varieties of fruit, which re¬ 
quire additional heat, are placed on walls, as apri¬ 
cots, nectarines, peaches, plums, grapes, figs, and 
some cherries and pears. The method of arranging 
the branches differs with the fruit, but the horizontal 
plan is most recommended, especially for plums and 
pears. Some gardeners give it the preference in 
nearly every case (fig. 20). 
The filbert is trained in a peculiar manner; the 
leading shoot is headed down to eighteen inches, 
and eight strong shoots obtained within twelve 
inches of the ground, and 
these are trained outward by 
placing a hoop between them; 
when they are well formed, they 
are trained curving upward. The 
centre is to be kept free, and the 
shoots encouraged to six feet; 
the small lateral branches along 
these shoots are to be kept down 
to six inches, and will bear the 
fruit. 
Training en quenouille, or 
distaff fashion, is a favorite 
method in France and Brussels 
for apples and pears (fig. 21). 
The branches are tied down to 
stakes driven near the root, or 
to the stem, until the wood is 
firm. The height of these trees 
is usually eight feet, but in 
training en QUE- F rance they are sometimes al- 
nouille. Fig. 21. lowed to .grow to twenty feet. 
In the operation of pruning, the shoots are cut 
off close to the buds, or at a distance from them not 
greater than the diameter of the branch to be cut 
off; because, without the near proximity of a bud, 
the wounds will not heal over. 
The commonest mode of training for stand¬ 
ards is dwarfing. The leading shoot is kept down 
to eight or ten feet, and the lower branches trained 
out and thinned, so as to give the tree the appear¬ 
ance of a shrub. In this way apple orchards are 
managed in Europe, and it is wonderful how many 
varieties are thus cultivated on an acre. For this 
purpose, crab or paradise stocks are chosen for 
grafting, and the trees of small growth taken. The 
main stem is made to branch at eighteen inches, 
and the trees set at eight to twelve feet apart. 
Fan-training is the most common, especially for 
peaches, nectarines, apricots, almonds, figs, plums, 
and cherries of small growth (fig. 22). 
Besides these most common methods, pendant , 
vertical , and high training are practised. In the first, 
the branches are curved downward ; in the second, 
several shoots, selected from two horizontal branch¬ 
es, are carried upright; in the third, the main stem 
is allowed to run nearly to the top of the wall 
without branching, and then the uppermost shoots 
are trained horizontally and drooping. This is 
especially recommended in the grape and pear. It 
is a good plan for filling up a wall, the lower parts 
of which are covered with peaches and other fan- 
trained trees ; or are shaded by dwarf trees planted 
in boxes, which require to be housed during the 
colder months of the year. 
Some gardeners com¬ 
bine several of these 
plans together, so as to 
give the branches partly 
a horizontal, and partly a 
fan-training, and instead 
of one main stem only, 
others select two. 
Another French plan 
of training standards is 
in a pyramidal form {en 
pyramide, fig. 23); this, 
with the preceding, is the 
common method of ma¬ 
naging apples and pears. 
The tree is either cut 
down to a dwarf of eight 
or ten feet, or allowed to Training en pyra- 
run up to twenty or more. mide.—Fig. 23. 
MASTODON COTTON.—No. 2. 
The effect Mastodon Cotton is going to have upon 
cotton growing, is difficult to anticipate ; but there 
are some things in regard to it which may, without 
much hazard, be clearly expected. It is the decided 
opinion of many well-informed persons, that it will 
in a few years entirely supersede the cultivation of 
all other cotton in this country, except, perhaps, 
the Sea Island, where a very fine article is intended 
to be made. Whether it may be so soon cultivated 
so extensively as this, may be uncertain, but this 
much may be, it would seem, looked upon as next 
to certain. All saw-ginned cotton that would rank 
as high in mercantile classification as “ middling 
fair,” or “ fair,” will hereafter, in a few years, be 
of the mastodon. For it is beyond question that 
for the finer grades of cotton, the common Mexican 
can offer no successful competition to the mastodon; 
