1874. ] 
THE APPLE : ITS CULTUEE AND VARIETIES.-CHAPTER VI. 
59 
lines to a deptli of 2 ft., cutting off every root clean to the side of the ball of 
earth surrounding the tree. Next try, by carefully pressing against the stem of the 
tree in various directions, if there are any strong roots under the ball. If there 
are, they must be carefully reached, and divided with a sharp tool; but if on 
applying pressure it would appear easy to heel the ball over, no further cutting 
is necessary, and the earth, with a little addition of fresh coinpost, may be 
returned to the trench, and the operation is finished. 
Trained Espaliers and Cordons, although requiring equal attention with the 
above as to root-pruning, ought not to be subjected to periodical liftings, but 
should from the first be treated more in the nature of permanent trees; they 
should therefore at once be planted at the full distance of 15 ft. apart, and the 
root-pruning, when the growth shows its necessity, must be performed by under¬ 
mining the tree, on both back and front, and severing the largest roots. If it 
appears desirable to occupy for a few years the space between the trees, it may 
be done by planting one or more of the slow-growing prolific sorts on the Para¬ 
dise stock, not training them, but merely fastening them to the trellis, and re¬ 
moving them as soon as the points of the Espaliers approach them. Perhaps for 
the purposes of the amateur gardener the spaces might be more profitably 
utilised by planting strong gooseberry bushes, and training the shoots upright, 
in a manner which I hope to detail in a future paper on that subject. 
I would here observe that my reason for impressing on the mind of the 
amateur that lifting and root-pruning should be performed in October, is that he 
may not lose the chance of the next season’s crop, which he would certainly run 
the risk of doing, if the operation were deferred until the depth of winter or the 
early spring. This, again, brings me to another important point in the culture of 
this fruit on the restrictive system. The professed object of this system is to obtain 
abundance of fruit, but having attained that object, we must beware that we do 
not take too great an advantage of the generous produce ; we must not forget 
that the production of fruit is the most exhaustive process to which the tree can be 
Subjected, and if we do not apply the same principle of restriction to the produc¬ 
tion of fruit as we do to the production of growth, the constitution of the tree 
will suffer, and this would involve the necessity of a season of rest from fruit¬ 
bearing, to restore the power of producing it. Now the amateur, with only a 
limited number of trees to deal with, can so regulate the production of fruit, that 
it shall not interfere with the proper functions of the tree with regard to the 
future produce. This end is to be attained by timely and severely thinning-out 
the clusters of fruit wherever they are too thickly set, retaining only the most 
perfect and best-shaped of them, by which means the trees will have the best 
chance of exercising those natural functions which are necessary to the formation 
of future fruit-bearing growth, and their owner will have the satisfaction of finding 
the quality of his fruit greatly improved. In reference to this, it should be 
remembered that where every fruit is good and fit for the table, the result is 
far more satisfactory than when quality is sacrificed for a greater quantity.— 
John Cox, Bedleaf , 
