J32 ON THE DIFFERENT METHODS OF 
TRAINING FRUIT-TREES. 
form. In three years they had gained the desired figure ; and., in 
general, about four feet high. A few flower buds were formed on each 
tree j and to accelerate this habit, the stems were all deprived of a ring 
of bark about two inches from the surface of the ground. This* 
operation was done with a woodman’s rasing-knife, which made an 
opening about the sixth part of an inch wide, and as deep as to 
remove a thin slice of the alburnum. This separation of the bark had 
the desired effect. The exertions of the roots were checked ; and, of 
course, the expansion of the head became at the same time moderate, 
which was favourable to the development of fruit-buds. 
The wounds on most of the free-growing trees were nearly healed 
again at the end of the year ; those that were completely so, were re¬ 
opened with the same tool in the following spring ; and one (a Dutch 
eodlin) growing much stronger, and overtopping the rest, was treated 
much more severely, by having a ring, nearly half an inch wide, re¬ 
moved all round. The weaker-growing sorts, as the nonpareil and 
golden pippin, required no farther check for several years. 
The effects of the ringing .became more and more visible every suc¬ 
ceeding year ; and the rasirig-lmife was used occasionally, as the quick 
healing, and consequent extra yigour of individual trees required it. 
The Dutch eodlin, before alluded to, was, in the fifth year, the smallest 
tree in the row ; a proof that it had been handled too roughly ; a per¬ 
fect re-union of the severed bark not having taken place. But to 
recover the tree, a fillet of bark from another was neatly let in across 
the original wound, tied and clayed, and united the bark as before. 
We have already said that trees trained in this way look extremely 
well during the first ten or twelve years ; and our reason is, that after 
that time the bottom spray is liable to die off, the strong growing trees 
become tumpy, naked at the bottom, and unsightly, and then require 
some such treatment as is mentioned in the preceding article. 
Another way of training trees planted along walks, or round the 
compartments of a garden, is one borrowed from the French, and called 
by them the distaff form. In this method of training a central stem is 
carried upright, whence side branches diverge from bottom to top, the 
lower ones extending about three feet, more or less, from the stem; and 
those higher up, shorter and shorter, gradually, so that the whole tree 
assumes a conical form. A rank of fruit-bearing cones are very orna¬ 
mental, because the branches are confined to a drooping position, one 
falling over another, from top to bottom ; and thus, without shading 
each other, or depriving each other of full air. The hanging position 
of the branches induces fruitfulness; and, if the whole system can 
be kept in a very moderate state of growth, the plan is good, as 
