PRUNING AND MANAGEMENT OF THE PEACH TKEE, 



exhausting it, consists, then, in tlie art of keeping the whole extent of all the leading 

 branches Avell furnished with shoots capable of producing fruit, a property which they 

 lose when more than one year old. We must therefore know how to procure a suc- 

 cession of these by suppressing those branches that have borne fruit, and which, after 

 that, are merely wood-branches. This is done by properly pruning the fruit-shoots, 

 and by promoting the growth of others to succeed those that have borne fruit. 



78. On the fruit-branches there are eyes which may be single, double, triple, quad- 

 ruple, or even more numerous (9 — 14). Ilence there are four sorts of fruit-branches. 

 The first, which has single eyes, usually a flower-bud, is long and slender, and is 

 terminated by a pushing-eye or growing-point. It is shown in fig. 1. The terminal 

 pushing-bud is seen at a; all the buds, &, are single and flower-buds. Sometimes it 

 has also at its base another wood-bud, a ; and when this is the case, the shoot is con- 

 sidered well constituted. These wood buds are found more especially on the under 

 side, and at the base of wood-branches, particularly in aspects not much exposed to 

 the sun. 



To. The second (fig. 2) has double eyes, c; the one, a, a wood-bud; the other a 

 flower-bud. 



80. The third (fig. 3) has triple eyes, d ; two of them flower-buds, and a wood-bud, 

 a, between them. 



81. The fourth, the length of which varies from an inch and a quarter to about 

 three inches, forms a little spur, which in growing displays a small cluster or boquet, 

 composed of four flower-buds, and sometimes more (fig. 4, 5, ^), in the midst of which 

 is a pushing-eye, a. This kind is a fruit-branch properly so-called, for it produces 

 with greater certainty the finest fruits. It is only found on well-established trees, and 

 generally on the old wood. It appears to be the result of a wood-bud being prevented 

 by the scarcity of sap from becoming a shoot. A deficiency in the flow of sap con- 

 verts nearly all the wood-buds into flower-buds. (See fig. 5.) We call it cochonnet 

 at Montreuil, and in other localities it receives the names of branche « bouquet and of 

 bouquet de mat. 



82. It must be understood that well-constituted fruit-branches have always wood- 

 buds close to their bases. It is these eyes that aflbrd the means of forming replacing 

 or successional branches, the importance of which will be explained in pointing out 

 the proceedings by which their development is induced. 



83. The fruit-branches almost invariably push as many shoots as they have eyes. 

 Whence it follows, that, with this natural disposition, a tree would very soon have 

 nothing but fruit-branches, the terminal of which would be the only wood-bud. 

 Shoots having no wood-buds on their lower parts, and which, consequently, can not 

 be properly shortened, would elongate more or less ; but all below each year's termi- 

 nal shoot would become entirely naked branches, ultimately bearing only at their 

 extremities a small wood-shoot. Besides the disagreeable appearance which a Peach 

 tree in that state would present, its produce would be small, and its life would be 

 shortened. We must, therefore, prevent such bad consequences by judicious pruning. 



84. This consists in operating so as to cause the sap to flow with greater force into 



