46 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
we subject fruit trees are mainly intended to counteract this tendency towards 
vertical growth, because of the limited space to which w T e are obliged to confine 
them ; for the same reason we are chiefly dependant upon the lateral growth 
for fruitful wood, and, therefore, must perforce divert the flow of the sap from 
the vertical into the lateral growth; and herein we And one of those great 
causes which influence the production of great effects, and w r hich is, in fact, a 
great secret in management. 
In this tendency which most trees possess to grow vertically, we find the 
reason why good managers always recommended that the centre of trained 
fruit trees should at all times be kept open; but, whereas many of our pre¬ 
decessors in the profession depended upon winter pruning for the attainment of 
that object, the more modern system aims at arriving at the same end by the 
more effectual and rational mode of summer pruning, when the trees are in full 
growth. 
It will thus be seen that the operator in placing before himself an imaginary 
perfect tree, has to bring a great amount of practical experience, combined with 
a certain portion of theoretical knowledge, before he can hope to see his ideas 
carried out; he will know that it is easy enough to cover a wall with wood 
when the roots have plenty of room for development; but as he wants fruit, 
and cannot afford either time or space for the tree to exhaust its energies, so as 
to arrive at a fruit-bearing condition in its own time, he must put in practice 
artificial methods to counteract natural tendencies. There are only two legiti¬ 
mate methods of doing this: One is root-pruning (see page 8), which may be 
called cutting off the supplies; and the other is summer-pruning, or cutting off 
the channels through which those supplies are conveyed and made available 
for future development. In order to understand this in a simple manner, we 
must take it for granted that a free development of roots can only take place 
when there is a correspondingly free development of branches covered with 
healthy foliage; and supposing the two to be in equal action, take away a 
portion of one, and the balance is immediately disturbed. Thus, by removing 
leaves and shoots we check root-action ; and, vice versa , if we cut off roots, we 
check the power of making wood, the difference bfeing only the season of 
operation; for as pinching and stopping are summer work, so root-pruning is 
very properly delayed until the trees are dormant. 
These, then, are the operations by means of which the primary object of 
covering the wall with fruit-bearing wood must be attained; and the reason 
why there is more scope for the production of fruit-spurs in the culture of 
pyramids appears to me to be that there is no need to remove any of the 
surplus shoots, but that the whole may be subjected to the routine of pinching 
and stopping, in order to convert them into fruit-spurs. Trained wall trees on 
the contrary, which expose only one face to the light, and are limited as to 
space, must in many cases have two-thirds of the shoots entirely removed, and 
sometimes even more, otherwise the wood would become overcrowded. And, 
again, as the principal object of raising walls for the culture of fruit trees is 
to obtain the full benefit arising from the intercepted rays of heat, it is obvious 
that the fruit-bearing wood should be kept as near the wall as possible, because 
during the day it absorbs a great amount of heat, which is given out at night 
by radiation, and hence all foreright shoots, or such as have a tendency to 
push outwards, must be kept removed, all of which tends to lessen the space 
available for the production of fruit-spurs—not that I believe this to be any 
disadvantage, but the contrary, because, as I before observed, an excessive 
development of fruit-buds is rather to be avoided than encouraged. I like to 
see a reasonable amount of growing wood, as well as of fruitful, because then 
there is hope for a continuous crop ; for a great development of fruit in one 
