American Pomology. Apples

The vertical and oblique cordons represented and recommended by Du Breuil are very attractive, and admirable methods of training and dwarfing fruit trees, and of crowding a great many into a small space. His method of making an edging to the fruit-border with dwarf apples, inarched together so as to form a connected tree for its whole length, is a capital illustration of the control we may exercise upon vegetation.

Standards and pyramids are often trained as weeping trees, for the sake of gratifying the fancy of the cultivator, and with a view of bringing on that early productiveness which results from the check of the upward current of sap that is incident to such a mode of treatment. This is really a kind of dwarfing so far as it goes, and if commenced early in the life of the tree, it may become very effective, especially when combined with other means of reducing the growth. These are formed by arching the branches, tying their tips to a ring of wire or hoop secured near the ground, or simply by fastening weights to them sufficient to keep them in the desired position, and by tying the upper limbs to the lower ones. As is well known, the sap flows most readily toward the shoots that occupy a vertical line; it will be seen that its ascent will be seriously retarded in those that are bent, and their vigor will be diminished, and fruit-bearing will be promoted. This process must not be continued too perseveringly, lest the tree become exhausted by over-production.

Du Breuil recommends laying bare the principal roots of the tree in the spring of the year, so as to expose them for the most of their length, and leaving them in this condition during the summer. This exposure of roots to the sun and air diminishes the vigor of the tree, and hence it tends to the production of fruit. He also recommends the removal of a part of the roots in the spring, and replacing the earth; considering this a more energetic operation than the preceding, he advises caution, lest we injure the tree. This is simply root-pruning, a plan that has been pretty thoroughly tested in this country, where, perhaps, its beneficial effects are more needed than in any other, and where we shall even find it advantageous to have recourse to mechanical means for its performance in large orchards by horse-power, as will be set forth in another place.

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1

Companion for the Orchard.—Phillips.

2

Elliott—Western Fruits.

3

North American Sylva, Nuttall II, p. 25.

4

Diary.

5

History of Knaresborough, p. 216.—Companion of the Orchard, p. 34.

6

Our lexicographers give it a similar origin, but refer it to the shape in which it was put up. Others derive it from poma, Spanish, a box of perfume.

7

Phillips' Companion, p. 32.

8

Phillips' Companion, p. 41.

9

Balfour's Manual.

10

Balfour's Manual.

11

Balfour's Manual, p. 284.

12

The Plant, a Biography: M.J. Schleiden, p. 68.

13

Because it had no root, it withered away. Mat. 13, 6.

14

A.R. Whitney, Franklin Grove Nurseries, Lee Co., Ill.