THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 



branch bud at the tip. Often growth extends less than a quarter 

 of an inch annually. Immediately behind the branch bud is a 

 cluster of buds that develop flowers. Thus the cherry and the 

 plum require little pruning when compared with" the peach. 

 About the only cutting done by most commercial growers is to 

 shorten long spindly branches that would thus make the tree 

 unsightly or unbalanced, and to thin out branches and twigs when 

 these become too numerous. 



Most apples develop their fruit at the ends of spurs which as 

 they become older grow often greatly contorted and gnarly. At 

 first they are stubby little things and so by the unthinking are 

 often removed. A client once asked me to examine his trees and 

 say why he got no fruit. He said he had done all the pruning 

 himself and had done " just what the books say ! " But he had 

 not. He had cut off all the newly forming fruit spurs and the 

 limbs were as bare of them as are telegraph poles! While the 

 spur is the characteristic method of fruit-bearing with apples and 

 pears, some varieties of each develop fruit in much the same 

 way as do peaches, on young shoots of the previous season's 

 growth. So a knowledge of the varieties in this respect is essen- 

 tial to intelligent pruning. 



The quince differs from all the other fruits we have been 

 considering because its fruit buds cannot be distinguished during 

 the winter. Even with a microscope they are undiscoverable. 

 Potentially, it seems from investigations, each bud that passes the 

 winter may develop and bear one or more fruits ; but actually the 

 number that do is small in proportion to the number of buds that 

 successfully pass the winter. The characteristic way for the 

 quince to bear is at the tip of the young shoot that grows from 

 a bud developed the previous season. With this knowledge in 

 mind pruning becomes a simple matter of removing twigs wher- 

 ever they are so unfavorably placed or so numerous that fruit 

 formation and development would be unlikely or inferior. The 

 quince is probably most satisfactorily grown as a bush with 

 several stems because when one fails, a younger may take its 

 place. When grown in tree form the whole plant is lost if the 

 trunk becomes seriously afflicted with borers. 



Now we turn to pruning problems as related to orchard and 



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