60 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 
Start thinning when the young fruits are the size of a hazel 
nut and repeat the process when they have reached the size 
of a walnut. Between these periods a certain amount of 
sterile fruit will drop off so the grower must judge the amount 
of pruning accordingly. In order to retain its flavor and rich 
aroma the ripe fruit should be gathered when it is highly col- 
ored. Both peaches and nectarines are so-called ‘‘heavy crop- 
pers’’. A conservative estimate for a specimen plant cover- 
ing a space 10 x 18 feet is 200 fruits. 
After cropping, the plants demand the same constant 
attention. The soil should be kept cultivated and a light 
fertilizer applied. The foliage should be sprayed several times 
a day to control red spider, mealy-bug, and aphids, and if 
necessary the house should be fumigated with hydrocyanic 
gas. With the approach of fall the watering should be 
gradually reduced and finally entirely withheld to ripen and 
harden the wood and assist defoliation. Remove all old or 
superfluous wood to make room for training the previously 
selected new fruiting branches. It is not necessary to pinch 
or stop these remaining shoots but they should be allowed 
full development, tying and training them about six inches 
apart. 
While the plants are resting winter pruning may be 
attended to, the object being to conserve the greatest amount, 
of fruiting wood and to provide space for young wood which 
will bear the future crop. The grower should be able to 
distinguish the wood bud from the fruit bud, shape being 
the most easily recognized characteristic. The wood bud 
has a conical, pointed appearance, whereas the fruit bud is 
much larger and more rotund. In pruning, the tree should 
be loosened from its supporting trellis and if unbalanced it 
may be pruned into shape. In making a cut care should be 
taken to cut back to a wood eye, not a spur, otherwise the 
plant will invariably die back to a wood bud, leaving dead 
wood in view during the growing season. For all purposes 
the fan-shape is considered most convenient. If too rank 
a growth is apparent it sometimes becomes necessary to prune 
the roots, which is accomplished by shortening the strongest 
roots, or by digging a trench three or four feet distant around 
the tree and cutting the strongest roots with a knife. This 
will influence the fibrous roots, essential in fruit develop- 
