FEBRUARY. 59 
too weak or too strong shoots are trained, to strengthen or reduce them 
as the case may require; from what we have stated above, it will be 
seen that we include root pruning as a part of the system of training. 
We may therefore take the Man method of training as answering 
nearly every purpose, and also of being best adapted to general culture. 
In recommending the fan-shape as the simplest, and therefore the 
best, to adopt for the Peach, Apricot, Plum, Cherry, and even Pears, 
we by no means wish it to be understood that we advocate ‘that precise 
adherence to training the branches in an exact straight line radiating 
from the stem, which is so frequently insisted upon, and shown by wood- 
cuts in many gardening works, having frequently seen the utter fai'ure 
of all such extreme methods for bringing the shoots of the Peach, 
Apricots, &c. (which naturally grow in a waving line), into the required 
angle, the twisting and pinching inducing gum, canker, and finally 
death to the branch. With the Cherry, Apple, and Pear more correct 
lines may be carried out, owing to these trees forming straighter shoots, 
but we would never insist on a too rigid adherence to straight lines 
even with the above, if it mcur much twisting of the branches to effect 
it. So far as our experience goes with respect to horizontal training, 
we should confine it solely to the Pear, and even with that fruit we 
question whether other forms are not preferable. 
From our own experiments with the Apricot, Plum, and Cherry, we 
can affirm that horizontal training is quite unsuited to their habits, and 
confers no other advantage. The Apricots under our care, like those at 
many other places, are subject to lose large limbs suddenly, and it has 
been thought that severe pruning was one cause of the failure. To try the 
experiment of growing the Apricot, some years back, on the non-pruning 
system, we took 12 maiden trees, and planted them against a south wall; 
the plants were never headed back: we simply trained the leader verti- 
eally, and the lateral shoots horizontally, and so continued them until the 
trees reached the top of the wall; the trees were 12 ft. apart, and we hoped 
we had solved the question as to growing Apricots free from gumming by 
non-pruning. However, we were disappointed; the horizontal branches 
in four or five years after planting commenced dying, and the trees ina 
few years bore a ragged appearance. Only three are now left, and 
those much mutilated, and as the gaps made by the branches going off 
cannot by any means be so well filled up as when the fan-shaped form 
is adopted, the system is decidedly inferior to fan training. With the 
Plum and Cherry the side branches never grow freely, as the flow of 
sap seems confined too much to the main stem, which keeps throwing 
out wood in excess, and thereby weakening the lateral branches, a defect 
we could never properly overcome. So far, therefore, as regards hori- 
zontal training to these kinds of fruit trees, we consider the unequal 
distribution of sap prevents that fruitfulness which it 1s the object of 
training to produce. 
J. D.S. 

