17 FEBRUARY 1956, Page 27

OLD FRUIT TREES

Old fruit trees are sometimes ringed and sometimes root pruned. In general, to prune cut half the main roots one season and complete the next. Fibrous roots are never touched and only thick ones cut. Make a narrow trench two spits deep in a quarter of a circle about a a yard and a half from the trunk of a wall- trained tree. A half-circle at the same distance is made for an ordinary tree. More drastic treatment is cutting back a great part of the tree, but this I think is the very last resort.