an open situation, and where the light falls equally, the flow of sap is vertical, and the strongest or leading branches will form in this position, until the stem or trunk acquires a certain age or elevation, which is determined by the soil, situation, and nature of the tree; but in places where the light is obstructed on any side, the flow of sap inclines towards the light.

Eighth. If a bud formed and placed for a leading branch be removed, or the vessels connected with it are contracted and injured, and the usual passage of the sap obstructed, the wood, bud occupying the next best position will take its supply and perform its office; and when from any number of wood buds, formed to receive a quantity of sap, a part be taken away, the share of sap which that part would otherwise have received is given to those remaining, and they are extended proportionally.

These will be found always to determine the figure of the tree, which is an object of the first importance, both in its produce and appearance; but it seems never to have been thought worth attending to.

Hitt appears to have conceived a more correct idea of those principles than any other author, and yet his system has evidently failed, from the want of a due observance of them in his practice; but his mode of serpentining the stems of trees promotes a more equal division of the sap, and is better calculated to forward an extension of the

surface of leaves and branches, within a given space, than any other mode of training published, and is conformable to the principles which I have laid down.

The stems being raised and fixed to an elevation of 45 degrees, equally draw and propel the sap upwards; and then the points being first fixed perpendicularly, and turned from a bud to an angle of 45 degrees, that bud is placed in a more vertical position, and the bending of the vessels of the stem presenting also some obstruction to the flow of sap up the stem at that point, the bud is furnished with a greater share of sap than it would have received if the stem had remained erect: but Hitt's horizontal branches, from being so early and so abruptly fixed in that precise position, are so much opposed to the flow of sap, as to prevent it from reaching their points, and in consequence they cannot be extended in length; and the branches left on the upper sides of his stems, as marked G. and F. in figure 4. of his plate 4., representing a tree of the first year's training, will in most instances be found to grow so luxuriant, as to take the sap away from the upper part of the stem, and prevent its further extension.

The branches growing in this position, as marked O. O. Y. M. &c. in figure 5. and H. K. in figure 6., will, from the same cause, draw too great a portion of sap, and impoverish the upper parts; nor will the branches formed for bearers grow of equal strength.

This effect must be so clearly evinced in pear trees, trained as he directs on one stem, as to render it an obstacle almost insurmountable to the producing a tree such as his plate represents at the age of six years.

And in his peach trees trained with two stems, this principle will operate as powerfully against his mode of providing fresh bearers by shortening every alternate one to one bud: the branches which are not shortened, or the buds near the stem, will take the principal flow of sap, and many of the stubs will not shoot at all.

By referring to the sketches of Forsyth and Knight, as well as Hitt, it will be seen, that they direct the shoots of one year old to be fixed in a precise horizontal position, or to be fastened in that position the first season, by degrees, as they grow; and they represent the point bud as forming the strongest shoots, and without this it is clear the trees could not be made to extend in the manner described by their figures, and to cover such a space in so short a time; but the fact will always prove to be as follows.

Whenever a young luxuriant branch is fixed in a precise horizontal position, the bud occupying the most vertical position at the base will form the strongest shoot, and the point bud the weakest, which indeed will scarcely grow at all.

When such a branch is fixed in a perpendicular position, the sap will invariably flow to the extreme or point bud, which will be the most vertical, and

there form the strongest shoot, leaving all below it in a diminutive state.

If it be fixed in a reclining position, on an angle of about 45 degrees, all the buds on the upper side, and the point bud, will push out and form branches of nearly the same strength.

But when a branch or stem is two, three, or more years old, the vessels are not so liable to injury from being forced out of their natural position; and after this age, that part which has been kept free from buds may be bent with a gentle curve to almost any position, and the sap will continue to flow in its usual channels towards the extremities.

Forsyth's plan of training, either with one perpendicular stem and horizontal branches, or in the fan fashion, is very well calculated to bring a tree into an early state of bearing; but it is no better calculated to continue it in such a state than Hitt's.

By selecting and limiting the number of first shoots, and training them at full length, the sap is applied conformably to the third principle; but as trees furnish a much greater quantity of wood than can be properly disposed of in the space allowed by him, and are naturally inclined to attain a much greater height before they spread their branches, the greatest flow of sap will be up the perpendicular stem, and the strongest branches annually forming at the top, will leave the horizontals without the means of extension.

As fine fruit cannot be produced on weak branches, or on any of more than four or five years old, (which he acknowledges,) those horizontal branches will soon be worn out, and there will be no means of renewing them, but by heading back in the manner he directs for old trees.

I believe few who have adopted his plan have found themselves so fortunate in the result as to obtain such a quantity of pears as he represents to have been produced in so short a time after amputation*, and therefore will not be willing to repeat the experiment.

Any person who has trained trees on either of those plans must, after the first four or five years, have found an annual deficiency, instead of an increase, both in quality, number, and size of the fruit in every part of the tree; the extremes of the horizontals producing the best; and as the little sap supplied to them must be continually wasted in shoots near the stem, even those become smaller and weaker every year.

Forsyth directs the fore-right wood shoots on pear trees to be shortened at particular buds to about four inches; but this will inevitably produce other strong shoots from those buds, and by short

*

Forsyth says, "On the 20th of June I headed several standards that were almost destroyed by the canker; some of them were so loaded with fruit the following year, that I was obliged to prop the branches, to prevent their being broken down by the weight of it."