The process is simple and easy, continued as long as you please. Head in the shoots of these lateral branches to two or three buds and they will bear abundantly. As the growth increases, remove all that are not in the right places, and train all you spare, as before. In the fourth year, you will have trees of the appearance in the cut (Horizontal Training, fourth year).
Conical Training.—The Quenouille (pronounced kenoole) of the French, is the best of all forms of training, especially for the pear. To produce conical standards, plant young trees four or five feet high, and after the first year's growth, head back the top, and cut in the side branches, as in the cut (Progressive stages of conical training).
Progressive stages of Conical Training. Conical Training complete.
The next season several tiers of side branches will shoot out. The lowest should be left about eighteen inches from the ground, and by pinching off a part, others may be made to grow, at such distances as you may desire. At the end of the second year, the leader is headed back to increase the growth of the side shoots. The laterals will constantly increase, and you must save only a sufficient number. The third or fourth year, the lateral branches may be bent down and tied to stakes. The branches must be tied down from year to year, and the top so shortened in as to prevent too vigorous growth, and throw the sap into the laterals. This may be continued until the tree will exhibit the appearance in the cut (conical training complete). When the tree has become thoroughly formed it will retain its shape without keeping the branches tied. The fan and horizontal training are valuable for fruits that need winter protection, and they are also very ornamental, and enable us to cultivate much fruit on a small place. All these forms of training increase largely the productiveness of fruit-trees. It is recommended for all small gardens and yards, and will pay in growing fruit for market.
TRANSPLANTING.
Trees should be transplanted in spring in cold climates, and in autumn in warm regions. The top should be lessened about as much as the roots have been by removal. Cutting off so large a part of the top as we often see is greatly injurious. Trees frequently lose one or two years' growth, by being excessively trimmed when transplanted. The leaves are the lungs of the tree, and how can it grow if they are mostly removed? All injured roots should be cut off smoothly on the lower side, slant out from the tree, and just above the point of injury. Places for the trees should be prepared as given under the different fruits and the trees set firmly in them an inch lower than they stood in the nursery. The great point is to get the fine mould very close around all the roots, leaving them in the most natural position. Trees dipped in a bucket of soil or clay and water, thick enough to form a coat like paint, just at the time of transplanting, are said to be less liable to die. Every transplanted tree should have a stake, and be thoroughly mulched. Trees properly transplanted will grow much faster, and bear a year or two earlier, than those that have been carelessly set out. For further remarks on this important matter, see under the different fruits.
TURNIP.
This is one of the great root crops of England, and to considerable extent in this country, for feeding purposes. We think it should be displaced, mostly, by beets, carrots, and parsnips. They are more nutritious, as easily raised, and more conveniently fed. The Rutabaga is a productive variety, and possesses a good deal of nutriment. The essentials in raising good turnips of most varieties, are very rich soil, worked deep, and finely pulverized. They should stand in rows two feet apart, and one foot apart in the rows. They may be mainly tended with a small cultivator or root-cleaner.