PRUNING AND MANAGEMENT OP TIIE PEACH TREE. 



tlio lower i«art of o:nli friiitl>r:iiuli, in order that the eyes there sitiiatcil, and more 

 csiKvially the h)wost one, may not die olV in consequence of the sap hein*; drawn up 

 to the top of the branch. Such mi^'lit bo the case if the shoot were h'ft entire ; and 

 it mii^ht likewise occur even it' jm lined, if we did not watch the <;rowth of the terminal 

 and of all the wood-buds situated above the one nearest to its base, so that the devel- 

 opment of the latter, which is most important, may not be arrested. The whole art, 

 then, in pruniiijjc the fruit-bearing shoots, consists in encouraging the eyes at their 

 bases, in order that they may be in a state to develop themselves. To attain tliis, 

 every fruit-shoot is pruned, for the first time, to a length proportionate to its strength, 

 and to the place it occupies ; that is to say, as many fruit-buds arc left on it as it can 

 support without being exhausted. The cut is made above and near'to a pushing-eye, 

 which becomes the terminal. Hie eli'ect of all pruning being to improve the parts 

 beneath, all the -wood-buds and fruit-buds that are allowed to remain, uniformly open. 

 The growth of the young shoots is conducted so as to always encourage that of the 

 lowest one ; all those that are useless are pruned oft", and Ave check, by pinching, if 



they are growing too luxuriantly, those intended to be preserved ; 



and lastly, the shoot which has been selected to become, at the 



following pruning, the siicceesional one, is maintained in a proper 



degree of vigor. 



85. The following year the wliole of the former year's fruit- 

 branch is cut off above the shoot encouraged at its base, which 

 now becomes a fruit-branch, bearing fruit in its turn ; and is 

 pruned so as to encourage, as before said, the development of one 

 or two shoots at its base, one of which is to become its succes- 

 sional shoot. The same operation is performed year after year. 

 For the better understanding of this see fig. 9. The branch a, at 

 first pruned at c, has borne two fruits at o, o, and has made the 

 shoot seen from c to a; at the same time it has produced the 

 shoot B, which has now become a successional fruit-branch ; and 

 with this view the branch a is pruned at cl, immediately above 

 the insertion of the old fruit-branch, and this successional shoot 

 at 0, above the double eye i, which will bear fruit, as well as the 

 two single eyes lower down the shoot, viz., k, I. At m and n are 

 seen two wood-eyes, one or other of which, in growing, will sup- 

 ply the successional shoot in the following year. 



86. Such is the general principle, the object of which is to 

 concentrate the sap in the lower eyes, and thus prevent them from 

 dying off; for, in that case, we would be obliged to cut off the 



rig- 9- branch that had fruited, as it only wastes the sap, without hav- 



ing, at the same time, any means of replacing the said branch ; and thus a gap 

 would be produced at the place it occupied. Nevertheless, this too absolute principle 

 must receive some modifications which will be adverted to when explaining the 

 applicable to each of the four sorts of fruit-branches Avhich exist on the Peach tree 



