1881 . ] 
THE CULTURE OF WALL FRUITS.-CHAP. XXIII. 
51 
mucli young wood as will keep the trees well 
furnished, the remainder to he entirely removed, 
or occasionally a spur or so may he left in open 
spaces ; but it is not necessary to resort to spur¬ 
ring at all, as they will produce as much fruit 
on the young wood as the trees ought to carry, 
if it is to be fine; indeed, spurs only crowd up the 
branches with unnecessary bloom and foliage. 
Very much of this can be regulated at the sum¬ 
mer pruning, when it will be proper to remove 
every shoot not required for bearing purposes. 
At the winter pruning, it will only be necessary 
to remove, as far as possible, all shoots which 
have borne their fruit, and to train in the 
young ones. The Kentish varieties, which 
partake somewhat of the manner of growth 
of the Morello, are not worth a wall, and 
should be planted as standards, and after many 
years may become profitable, their fruit being 
valuable for tarts when fresh, and later on being 
much appreciated in a dried or preserved state. 
Dukes. —The varieties of the Duke section, 
although growing to great perfection and abund¬ 
ance on standards, are very much improved by 
wall culture. They are not so free-growing as the 
Morello, but are very amenable to spur treat¬ 
ment, and the shoots continue to produce bear¬ 
ing buds for some years, so that the operator 
has little difficulty in keeping his trees well 
furnished by training in, at the growing season, 
as many young shoots as will keep up the sup¬ 
ply of the bearing wood, and cutting off the 
remainder to form spurs, leaving little to be done 
at the winter pruning, except removing old and 
exhausted shoots, and training out younger 
wood to supply their places. 
Bigarreaus. —As regards this section, the 
finest dessert fruit can only be obtained from 
wall trees, and as these produce their fruit both 
upon spurs and the tivo-years old shoots, the 
management must be conducted accordingly. 
The varieties of this section, in favourable soils 
and localities, have, as a rule, a tendency to 
throw up a very strong and luxuriant growth, 
very far removed from being a fruitful one ; 
and the question of its being reduced to a 
fruitful state is merely one of time, or restric¬ 
tion of growth. Those who object to the 
latter, must be prepared with plenty of space, 
and continue to nail-in the young growth until 
the exuberance becomes exhausted and the trees 
commence bearing, after which the knife may be 
used more freely in order to regulate the supply 
of wood and fruit. Those to whom time is an 
object, and who have not such large spaces of 
wall at disposal, must resort to the system of 
restrictive treatment, which will be found to 
yield good results in less space and time than 
is requisite under the extension system. 
In the selection of trees of this section for 
planting, it is best to secure such as have 
been only once headed back closely from the 
maiden state; they will have made generally 
at least six radiating shoots, which are mostly 
very strong. The trees should be planted in Octo¬ 
ber, and mulched on the surface for the winter ; 
and they may be thrown into bearing almost at 
once, by leaving the whole of the wood at full 
length without topping ; but this is not quite 
desirable, as there should be a little more 
strength stored up in the trees, before they are 
subjected to those restrictive processes which 
will be necessary to induce early fruitfulness. 
It will be best, therefore, to shorten the 
whole of the shoots the first year to nine inches 
or a foot, according to their strength ; this will 
enable the operator to obtain a tree well filled 
up from the centre. If the trees in the first 
year have made only a moderate growth, the 
shoots may safely be left at their full length, 
and most probably the fruit-bearing process 
will commence at once; but, if they have 
grown very strong indeed, as is often the case, 
let them be carefully lifted out of their place 
and replanted, without any shortening at the 
pruning season afterwards. This will, in most 
eases, be found to be quite sufficient restrictive 
action to induce a fruitful condition of growth, 
after which the fruit-bearing process should be 
sufficiently exhaustive to regulate growth. 
I may remark, in passing, that the hori¬ 
zontal mode of training is very well adapted 
for either the Duke or Bigarreau section. Such 
trees may be kept in a good fruitful bearing- 
state for many years, within a comparatively 
small space, by severely following up the spur 
system of pruning. 
There is no tree under cultivation more sus¬ 
ceptible of the advantages to be derived from 
a supply of virgin soil to draw upon, than the 
Cherry, and in the case of wall trees it pro¬ 
duces very striking effects. Let the surface- 
soil of old exhausted fruit-tree borders be re¬ 
moved, say, for a depth of nine inches at least, 
and its place supplied by virgin compost, and 
it will be found that the trees have, aa it were, 
e 2 
