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ening these again and again, those bunches of stubs, which he and others so much deprecate, will be produced.

Although Knight's plan bears a little resemblance to Hitt's in the drawing, it will be found more exactly to resemble Forsyth's in effect; but as neither he nor Forsyth has adopted Hitt's mode of serpentining the stems, in so much will both prove inferior.

From the bending of the stem, the sap will always be more inclined to flow freely into the horizontals, and these in consequence may at all times be renewed with greater certainty; but as the sap in an upright stem will always flow to its top, and there form the strongest branches, the horizontals will draw but a small quantity only of the sap; and in consequence they will, in a few years, be impoverished and worn out, as they cannot be renewed but by amputating the head of the tree, and commencing anew.

And further, by laying the first branches of a plant in a horizontal position, the first year, or as they grow from the bud, they may be prematurely brought to a fructiferous state, but they cannot attain strength or length after this: the flow of sap being, as before observed, in a vertical course, throws itself out in shoots near the base or stem; and these being cut out or fixed in the same horizontal position, the second season, the same effect is produced the third.

And in every succeeding year, as the branches

must be more inclined to the perpendicular, the sap will flow, and the branches form more towards the upper end each year; and when near the centre, the strongest branches will form at the top, leaving the lower part naked. Hence it will generally be seen that the lower part of a wall is covered with wood too weak and old to furnish fine fruit, or a renewal of young wood, while the middle is either naked or filled with old wood, or that which is too young and too gross to bear fruit, and all the finest wood growing at the top.

Even when a handsome selection of branches is made, in the manner Mr. Knight recommends, by cutting out the smallest and the largest, these are so changed from their natural and original destination, by being left to receive the whole of the sap in the following season, and the surface so much curtailed, that they are mostly incapable of producing fruit in its highest perfection, as they become mere vehicles for the same superfluous produce of branches the next season which those were that had been cut out the last.

COMMENTS

ON

THE GENERAL MODE

OF

RAISING AND MANAGING

FRUIT TREES OF THE NURSERYMEN.

In the removal or transplantation of Trees, gardeners and nurserymen are generally very careless and inattentive in taking them up, and care not how much the roots are broken or lessened in number, provided they have enough left to keep the tree alive: the consequence is, that although the branches left on may remain alive, there is so great a deficiency of sap, from the loss of roots, that the vessels cannot be filled the following spring; therefore they contract and become inflexible, and after one or two seasons are incapable of extension; so that when in the course of time the roots are restored, and the sap supplied in the usual quantity, it is, from being restricted in its former course, impelled through the nearest vertical and accommodating buds that offer.

Hence it will be seen, that in almost all trees trained in the common way, the first branches

which were trained in, and are the most horizontal, are the smallest and weakest, and in consequence incapable of bringing fruit to perfection; and as these occupy the best part of the wall, the strongest and most luxuriant shoots, by being trained erect, quickly grow out of bounds, and are annually cut

away.

Thus the strength of the tree is wasted, and the continued efforts of Nature to produce fruit, in proportion to the age and capacity of the roots, is obstructed, instead of being forwarded and assisted.

It is this effect that induced the practice of heading back young trees, on transplanting; and under such circumstances it is certainly a proper and necessary method.

Trees that are not headed back, after the usual mode of transplantation, súch, for instance, as halftrained and full-trained trees from the nurserymen, are found to throw out their strongest shoots immediately about the stem or trunk; and notwithstanding these are removed, this and every other attempt to force the sap into the old branches is vain, its nature will remain the same; and a vigorous head cannot be restored, but by a removal of the old branches.

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This shows the impropriety of the common practice of heading back and training trees in the nursery ground.

As it is a general custom for those who plant fruit trees to rely on the nurseryman for the pro

duction of their plants, it becomes an object of the greatest importance to enquire how far their general practice is adapted to public utility. And I feel no hesitation in stating, that this business is conducted upon such imperfect principles, that it is almost impossible to find one plant in twenty that is worth transplanting.

It is obvious, that unless the original plan or foundation be good, a perfect superstructure cannot be raised.

From the deformity and disorder produced in the nursery ground, almost all our gardens and orchards exhibit in their trees a complete contrast to the beautiful simplicity and bountiful produce provided for by Nature.

Before, therefore, any thing like perfection can be attained by the gardener, a reformation must take place in the practice of the nurserymen.

The first operations of the nurseryman I will consider to be the transplanting his stocks for engrafting and budding; and in performing this, his only object is, that they grow and produce some kindly luxuriant branches; but as to how or where, or in what manner, either these or the roots may grow, he is perfectly indifferent.

Whether the bud or graft produces one or more shoots it matters not; the whole are cut off short, or, as it is termed, headed back, the following winter; and such as accidentally produce four or five branches, so placed as to be fastened, to form a flat side, are fixed to stakes or a wall, in the form

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