larly well calculated; in such a soil they will produce the finest fruit at an early period after planting, and continue healthy and prolific.

A tree thus planted, should be allowed from twenty to thirty feet, and if trained as directed and shewn by Plate 2. it may be expected to fill such a space in five or six years.

Plants intended to be trained in this manner should have the two stems trained in an erect position at least two years, or until they are not less than from six to eight or ten feet in length, before they are fastened down.

All collaterals should be carefully removed as they shoot out, and for the first year or two after, they must not be brought down lower than on an angle of 45 degrees; from this, let them be brought down by degrees to a more precise horizontal position, as shewn by the figure 6. which represents a tree of five years' growth from the graft or bud.

All wood buds that throw out shoots in any other part but at the base, where they are wanted, must be rubbed off close; and as the two or three buds nearest the point bud generally form strong wood shoots, these must be particularly looked to, and early removed.

When pear trees are required to grow high and fill a large space, they do better trained on a single stem, and this should be six feet high, like a standard, before the head is formed, as represented by figure 1. Plate 3.

When the bearing spurs grow three or four inches long, or more, which they sometimes do, they must be fastened close to the wall, both above and below the horizontals, as they grow.

Wood shoots must never be shortened for the purpose of producing fruit spurs, for by cutting short one shoot, two or more are forced out the following season; and by shortening these again, more are formed, and large, unsightly, and unprofitable stubbed branches are the result.

All wood shoots that grow where they are not wanted, must be cut off close to the parent branch, as soon as perceived.

If at any time the horizontal branches are found too much depressed to continue and support a strong wood shoot from their points, they must be raised to a more perpendicular position, which will throw the sap more into the leading branch.

If, on the contrary, the horizontals are found to throw the whole or too great a portion of the sap to the point bud, and the backward wood shoots are in consequence weak, they must be depressed.

The principal variation in the mode I recommend, compared to those of the other authors, will be found in the position of the branches; in all but this, perhaps, better instructions for general management, cannot be given, than those by Hitt; but by attending to the position of the branches, and managing them as I have directed, the sap will be made to flow and extend itself through those buds, which are placed in the proper situation to extend

the surface of the tree, and when this is the case, there can be no occasion for waste pipes, or other superfluous branches.

When any of the horizontals grow too old, or extend beyond the prescribed bounds, they may be removed by being cut back to the bearers best calculated to succeed them, which will supply their places.

Pear trees generally throw out one or two strong shoots from those buds that are the nearest to the point or leading bud of the horizontals or strong branches; in such cases, if the point bud be perfect, those must be removed early in the spring; but if the point bud be injured or destroyed, the next strongest shoot to it must be trained up in its place, and the others removed.

ON ESPALIERS.

THE HE general system of pruning and managing Espaliers is exactly the same as that of wall trees, and in every respect exhibits the same defects, and is subject to the same objections. The explanations I have given, and the observations made on wall trees, will therefore equally apply to these

trees.

Those branches, intended for horizontals, should always be permitted to grow to the length of from four to six feet before they are fixed in this position; and then they should not be brought down precisely horizontal the first year, but fixed on an angle of from 45 to 60 degrees; and when they are grown to a length sufficient to fill the space prescribed for them, or nearly so, they may be brought down directly horizontal.

All wood shoots, except those that grow on the upper sides, must be taken out quite close; but care must be taken to distinguish those from the fruit-spurs, which sometimes grow to the length of six or more inches. As these may be suffered to grow on all sides of the horizontals, the strongest

wood-shoots, which grow on the upper sides of the horizontals, and where there is room to train them in, should be fixed down obliquely, and never shortened or stopped, so that they may grow freely between the horizontals without crossing.

By these means, as the fruit buds and spurs of pears, apples, cherries, plums, &c. are always formed on strong healthy shoots of from one to three or four years old, which grow their full length, the trees will be in a state to produce the greatest quantity and finest quality of fruit at the earliest possible period, after grafting or budding: they will also possess all those requisites which, Bradley justly observes, ought to be found in every well regulated Espalier, viz. there will be "branches bearing fruit, branches knotted for fruit, and branches forming for knotting in regular and natu ral succession."

I have been told that the training of Espalier trees round a circle of stakes, or trellis, in a spiral manner, is a common practice in France, but I have never heard of or seen this mode in any regular system published or practised in this country.* shall, therefore, explain a mode by which trees may be made equally ornamental and productive, and

I

*Since the publication of this work, the Author has visited some of the first gardens and nursery-grounds in France, and he not only was convinced that this method has never been practised in France, but that the French have no idea of laying in branches their full length; their mode of training every tree is by cutting short the branches.

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