258 
THE PLOEIST AND POMOLOGIST 
exposed to the heat of the sun, by which the wood is so much hardened that 
the process of healing is very much hindered, and so much so in large cuts that 
the wound often does not heal at all, but a decay ensues, which in time pene¬ 
trates to the interior of the branch and causes premature decrepitude in such 
branches, 
From the six-inch stem as a starting point, train out five shoots, one in the 
centre and two on each side,,all of which should be as distant from each other 
as possible—never by any chance training two shoots from one point; and as 
they generally break pretty freely, there will be no difficulty in selecting shoots 
as far apart as possible. This I would call laying a foundation for a free and 
unobstructed flow of sap. Trees which have been continually headed closely back, 
so as to have the shoots radiating from one point, become in time a mass of hard 
dead knots, and the sap is obliged to make for itself a less obstructed channel 
by an unnatural enlargement. Care must be taken to secure the young shoots 
from injury, and the centre one should be stopped when 6 inches long ; but the 
side shoots may be allowed to grow on without stopping unless they throw out 
laterals towards the extremities, in which case they may be stopped at the 
laterals, but this is not material so long as there is a foot in length of clear wood 
free of lateral growths ; indeed I often think it best to let them grow freely, as 
it induces the formation of roots, and by attracting the sap from the centre 
tends to produce an enlargement of the wood, which in the after stages of growth 
contributes very much to facilitate the equable distribution of the sap. 
As there is always a very strong tendency in all fruit trees to throw the 
greatest strength into the centre of the tree on account of its more vertical 
position, the centre shoot which was stopped at 6 inches must be kept under 
rigid surveillance, and the effect of stopping will be to start the lateral growth, 
two shoots of which may be selected and trained out, one on each side, but not 
a centre one; these may be allowed to run a foot or so, but must be constantly 
stopped and checked from running away with the lead, which they invariably 
do if left unchecked. 
The next winter pruning will be very simple—merely to shorten the four side 
shoots to 1 foot in length, and train them carefully out, the two lower ones 
nearly horizontal; and with regard to the centre, if the two laterals have formed 
good sound wood likely to be useful, they maybe left and shortened to 6 inches, 
but if long-jointed, pithy, or unripened, cut back below them, for the purpose of 
obtaining two good shoots to train out in the following summer. 
We have now a good foundation for carrying the leading fruit-bearing 
branches; and as the shoots are as it were lifted up from the starting point, I 
maintain that trees so prepared are far more likely to produce a sound and 
healthy growth than such as are closely headed, and in which the shoots all 
spring from one point in a cluster, which I have often thought may be one 
amongst the probable causes which contribute to the still-mysterious death of 
large branches, which in this case may be said to be crowded or crushed out of 
existence by the superior strength of some of the leading branches. 
In the third year of growth these five or six shoots, as the case may be, will 
produce ten or twelve leading branches, and as they are destined to carry the 
fruit-bearing shoots in succeeding years, and at the same time will become the 
principal channels through which the sap will be equally distributed over the 
tree, it will be necessary to take some little extra care in the selection, each 
shoot being restricted to carrying two leading branches, one from the extremity 
and the other from near the base of the shoot, all the others being rigidly removed 
in a very young state, for two reasons : first, because it is not intended that these 
young shoots should carry fruit, even supposing that the extra shoots would 
produce blooming spurs; next, because it might otherwise be difficult to induce 
