spurred. They are usually trained horizontally, at about 1-1/2 ft.
from the ground, and may consist of one stem or of two, the stems in the
latter case being trained in opposite directions. In cold districts the
finer sorts of apples may be grown against walls as upright or oblique
cordons. From these cordon trees very fine fruit may often be obtained.
The apple may also be grown as an espalier tree, a form which does not
require much lateral space. The ordinary trained trees for espaliers and
walls should be planted 20 ft. apart.

The fruit of the apple is produced on spurs which form on the branchlets
of two years old and upwards, and continue fertile for a series of
years. The principal pruning should be performed in summer, the young
shoots if crowded being thinned out, and the superabundant laterals
shortened by breaking them half through. The general winter pruning of
the trees may take place any time from the beginning of November to the
beginning of March, in open weather. The trees are rather subject to the
attacks of the American blight, the white cottony substance found on the
bark and developed by an insect (_Eriosoma, mali_), somewhat similar to
the green-fly of the garden, but not a true aphis. It may be removed by
scrubbing with a hard brush, by painting the affected spots with any
bland oil, or by washing them with dilute paraffin and soft soap.

The apple-blossom weevil (_Anthonomus pomorum_), a small reddish-brown
beetle, often causes serious damage to the flowers. The female bores and
lays an egg in the unopened bud, and the maggot feeds on the stamens and
pistil. The weevil hibernates in the crannies of the bark or in the soil
at the base of the trees, and bandages of tarred doth placed round the
stem in spring will prevent the female from crawling up.

The codlin moth (_Carpocapsa pomonana_) lays its eggs in May in the
calyx of the flowers. The young caterpillar, which is white with black
head and neck, gnaws its way through the fruit, and pierces the rind.
When nearly full grown it attacks the core, and the fruit soon drops.
The insect emerges and spins its cocoon in a crack of the bark.

To check this disease the apples which fall before ripening should be
promptly removed. A loosely made hay-band twisted round the stem about a
foot from the ground is of use. The grubs will generally choose the
bands in which to make their cocoon; at the end of the season the bands
are collected and burned.

T