1G8 PKUNINO AND MANAGEMENT OF THE PEAOD TREE. 



importance fur ensuring the beauty which a tree presents when its principal branchos 

 aro roijuhirly furni;^hecl with bearinij-slioots, and for the maintenance of an o<jual growth 

 throughout the tree. It may be performed by the liand on tlie fruit-branche.s, and with 

 the point of the pruning-knife on the prolonging shoots of the wood-branches. 



124. It is always worse than useless to cause a waste of sap, for the latter is often 

 too scarce in the lower branches. The removal of young shoots in well-managed trees 

 ought, therefore, to be made at difl'ereiit times, as circumstances may require ; for if 

 we wait till there be too great a number of young shoots to be suppressed, it might 

 cause the loss of the tree. There are, however, some cultivators who disbud only 

 once, usually in July, and who cut oft" in one day all the useless young shoots. This 

 is a great error ; the absence of fruit-branches in so many Peach trees at Montreuil is 

 almost solely attributable to the removing, at one time, all the useless young shoots 

 and laterals. 



The second disbudding is performed with the pruning-knife, cutting oft" the young 

 shoots that are to be removed, as closely as possible to their insertion. 



VII. On Pinching. 



125. This is a most important operation. It consists in the suppression of the 

 herbaceous extremities of young shoots. These are taken off" by pinching them be- 

 tween the nails of the thumb and fore finger. It is done with the view of diminish- 

 ing the growth of those shoots which push too vigorously ; while at the same time 

 the sap that these would have have otherwise appropriated is turned to the advantage 

 of the weaker shoots. Pinching differs from disbudding, inasmuch as it is only a 

 temporary way of checking the excessive growth of a young shoot; while disbudding 

 is its total extinction. 



126. For this reason we pinch nearly all the young shoots, the growth of which 

 we find it necessary to moderate, wherever they may be situated ; and this is also 

 frequently done with the view of assisting the development of other shoots. Thus we 

 pinch the terminal shoot of a branch that has reached the desired length, in order to 

 stop the sap, and turn it to the advantage of the lower shoots and eyes, a greater de- 

 velopment of which is necessary to the end in view. 



127. Pinching requires a great knowledge of the mode of vegetation of the Peach 

 tree. It is indispensable for trees on walls, and it is more especially necessary for the 

 upper parts where the sap flows most strongly. This operation is performed at no 

 fixed period, but is done when the tree requires it. It must be several times repeated 

 from the end of April till August, the particular periods being regulated by the state 

 of vegetation in different trees, and by that of diffc'rent parts of the same tree. When 

 the balance of the tree is threatened, recourse must be had to pinching. It is well, 

 therefore, to watch the progressive indications of the flow of sap ; for in consequence 

 of strong shoots resulting elsewhere from its check by the first pinching, the operation 

 frequently becomes necessary on them. Those young shoots, which, by their appear- 

 ance or position, promise to become very strong, should be pinched before they reach 

 the same length as the others that are less favorably situated, and not so well 



