The work indicated for the latter half of February may be continued in March. Pruning and planting should be completed, as before the month is out many trees will be starting growth.

Pruning Nuts

If Filbert and Cob Nut trees are now examined it will be found, probably, that small reddish flowers are open on side shoots springing from the main branches. These are the fruiters, or female flowers. The male element is supplied by the long yellow "catkins," from which the pollen is blown when it is dry. The pruning of Nuts should be deferred until the reddish flowers are open, and dry pollen is present, simultaneously. After fertilisation, any long shoots which are bearing female flowers may be shortened to the incipient fruit, but short, bearing shoots may be left unpruned. Shoots that bear catkins alone may be cut right back after fertilisation.

Early Vines

Vines in houses that were started recently will be pushing freely now, and any superfluous shoots should be removed before they have extended more than a couple of inches, at which stage there will be no difficulty in choosing which to remove and which to retain. As a rule, one lateral for every foot of main rod will suffice, and they should be alternate on opposite sides. The laterals form from buds on spurs close to the main rod, and it is when more shoots break than are required to provide the specified allowance that thinning out, or "disbudding" as it is termed, is called for, Shoots from the bottom of the rod are technically faulty, even if they are strong, because they are badly placed, and will be troublesome to tie down later on.

These should always be dispensed with if possible. Careful attention should be devoted to the ventilation of early vineries. The houses are not half full of foliage yet, and a cold wind cutting through them would cause considerable injury, especially after the temperature has been run up by an outburst of hot sunshine. Do not open ventilators on the windward side in rough weather, and those on the other side need not remain open long. The house should be closed when the sun leaves it, but in any case by 2 p.m. Stop fruiting shoots (see Fig. 33).

Peaches And Nectarines

Houses in which the trees are in bloom should be ventilated if possible, and kept somewhat dry, as this favours the maturation and dispersion of the pollen. The latter process will be facilitated by shaking the wires to which the shoots are tied.

Fig. 33. - Stopping Vines.

a. The fruit-bearing shoot stopped three leaves beyond the bunch, b. C Lateral growth stopped at the first leaf.

The well-known forcing Strawberry Auguste Nicaise.

A temperature of 500 to 550 will be suitable at this stage. Screens of tiffany or scrim (these are fine forms of canvas sold by large seedsmen) or fish netting should be prepared for placing in front of outdoor Peaches which are showing flower or are in bloom. Early flowering is not desirable out of doors, and the canvas can be used during sunshine to keep the buds back; also, when the flowers actually open, to protect them from frost at night. Disbud later trees (see Fig. 34).

Apricots may be protected in the same way as Peaches and Nectarines.

Strawberries

Forcing under glass, and planting in the open, may continue as in the latter half of February. The hints given there apply. In thinning the berries, first remove any under-sized or badly-shaped ones. Liquid manure will be helpful to the plants which are swelling up their crop. The various proprietary fertilisers sold by the seedsmen are good, and so is superphosphate, used at the rate of an ounce per gallon of water.