Vol. LXI. No. 2727. NEW YORK, MAY 3, 1902. 
#1 PER YEAR 
“FORM-TREE FRUIT CULTURE 
GIANT FRUIT FROM DWARF TREES. 
Pleasant Work for Amateurs. 
Part II. 
Concerning the relative crop producible from a 
pyramid and a standard tree, upon the same area, a 
standard begins to branch out at a height of three to 
seven feet above the ground, the one branching out 
at tne lower point being more properly called half 
standard. These branches are, as a rule, never cut 
back except at time of the planting; at least not with 
pear and apple trees, to my knowledge, peaches being 
the only trees where there is a very hazy and too sys¬ 
tematic cutting back of the yearly growth practiced. 
Without this yearly pruning of the main branches 
the fruit twigs appear only at the end and upon the 
upper half of each branch, the lower half of the 
branches remaining bare, according to the natural law 
of all plants, which 
causes the sap to favor 
the higher parts of the 
plants to the neglect of 
the lower parts. Each 
season the branches ex¬ 
tend their growth, and 
with every new season 
we see some of the fruit¬ 
bearing twigs at the low¬ 
er end of the branches 
wither from want of sap, 
which rushes by them to¬ 
wards the end of the 
branches like an express 
train past way stations; 
but the neglect of the sap 
is only one of several 
causes contributing to 
their decay. The impos¬ 
sibility of the light, sun 
and air freely reaching 
these lower fruit twigs, 
on account of the density 
of the foliage at the cir¬ 
cumference of the stand¬ 
ards is also a factor. Thus 
we see a full grown 
standard tree having 
practically no fruit twigs 
at the circumference of 
the “crown,” i. e., at the 
ends of the branches. 
A pyramid tree, on the 
other hand, if correctly 
trained, has many more 
fruit twigs and, conse¬ 
quently, can produce 
more fruit, tree for tree, than a standard, but in order 
to see why a pyramid has more of these twigs it is 
necessary to explain the method of training. Apples 
for pyramids should be budded on Doucin, pears on 
quince stock, with the exception of some very freely- 
bearing pears that would better be budded on seed¬ 
lings to insure longer life. A “whip” from a nursery 
is planted, and, except for pruning back to a length of 
about 30 inches (shorter ones being left whole) is 
allowed to grow without any interference during the 
following season. In the next Fall we begin with the 
training. From a point 12 to 16 inches above the 
ground we select six to eight buds, the highest of 
which is destined to continue the trunk, and should, 
therefore, in order to have a straight tree and not a 
one-sided one, be selected opposite to the side of the 
bark where the bud was inserted. Below this top bud 
we select five more, taking care to have these five in 
as many different directions. These are to give us 
the coming season five branches growing in as many 
different directions. Instead of cutting the whip off 
above the top bud selected we do so at a point six to 
eight inches above, and cut out all buds on this part 
left above the top bud, making it simply a stump, 
which dries up but of which we make good use. When 
the top bud shoots out a branch, and before this 
branch is longer than three to four inches, we tie this 
green shoot, while it is yet pliable, close to the stump 
(tying it once directly above its origin and again a 
little higher up). This stump answers, therefore, for 
a training stick, and is removed in September, when 
we need it no more, by a sharp slanting cut close 
above the point where the top bud produced the con¬ 
tinuation of the trunk. Further on, when we prune 
branches back, we also make use of such a budless 
stump on which we tie the continuation of each 
branch, always for the purpose of insuring a straight 
continuation of the part adjoining the stump. 
In the Spring, before the five buds selected as fu¬ 
ture branches make their shoots, we make a crescent¬ 
like incision into the bark one-eighth to three-six¬ 
teenths of an inch above each of the lower three buds. 
To do this we first make a straight cut through the 
bark, and one-sixteenth of an inch above that a slant¬ 
ing cut downwards so that the ends of the two cuts 
meet in a sharp point, removing at the same time that 
narrow strip of bark between the two cuts. This 
favors the closing up later on. Without these three 
crescents we would have, due to the natural vigorous 
upward rush of the sap, a strong shoot from the top 
bud and two others a trifle less strong from the two 
buds below the top one, but very weak shoots or none 
at all from the three lowest buds. On account of the 
removal of the narrow strip of bark the progress of 
sap is stopped at these cuts and forced upon the buds 
below the incisions, thus insuring vigorous shoots. 
While these five shoots are growing we must endeavor 
to favor the lower ones, or in other words to coun¬ 
teract the natural tendency of the sap, so that at the 
end of the season we have besides a strong continua¬ 
tion of the trunk five branches, of which the lower 
ones ought to be a little stronger and quite a little 
longer than the higher ones. The growing of the 
shoots can easily be modified by Summer pruning; 
that is, by pinching the green ends of those shoots 
which show a tendency to outrun the others. The 
removal of the last inch of a shoot checks its growth 
for a period of from four to six weeks, during which 
time the sap goes to the other parts of the tree, and if 
the strongest branch should still show a tendency to 
overmatch the others, another pinching back will 
remedy it. 
In the Fall we cut the lowest branch back at a 
point about 16 inches from its origin, plus a stump of 
eight inches (the use of the stump is explained 
above); if at the point 16 inches above the origin of 
the branch there is no bud on the outside of the 
branch (the side away from the trunk) we select the 
outside bud nearest to 
that point. The other 
four branches we cut 
back (leaving stumps on 
each as above) so that 
the ends of the five 
branches lie in one plane; 
each higher one must be 
shorter than the one be¬ 
low. The top shoot (con¬ 
tinuation of the trunk) 
we cut as follows: About 
12 inches above the origin 
of the top shoot we select 
again six to eight buds, 
of which the top one 
should be opposite the 
top bud of the previous 
series. This is to give us 
the continuation of the 
trunk for the next year’s 
growth, and, as before, 
we select five buds below 
this top one, taking care 
again to select them in 
different directions, and 
also we must see that 
the branches of the upper 
series come out at points 
between two branches of 
the series below it; this 
for the purpose of giving 
free access to the sun, 
air and light. 
The buds on a fruit 
tree are arranged spirally 
around the branch, the 
sixth one always being 
directly above the first one. We can, therefore, se¬ 
lect five branches in five different directions, which 
distributes the sap evenly. Of the five buds selected 
for the five branches of the second series we must 
again make crescent-like incisions into the bark above 
the lower three of the five; in fact, every new series 
is trained as the one before, always leaving a space 
of about 12 inches between each series, and having five 
branches to each series besides the continuation of 
the trunk. At the time when we are cutting back the 
new shoots of the second series we cut back the con¬ 
tinuations of the five branches of the first series cor¬ 
respondingly; that is, always leaving the lower ones 
longer than the upper ones, this cutting back in Fall 
amounting, according to their growth, to about one- 
third of each year’s growth of the branches. Judg¬ 
ment must be used, however, in this. A very vigorous 
branch which could not be checked in its growth dur¬ 
ing the season by the green pinching, or where the 
pinching was neglected, might have to lose half or 
