148 



Journal of Agriciill lilt, Yiciorui, [10 Mabch, 1917. 



growths are made to assume the leadership, and not pruned hard back. 

 Barrenness of the Rome Beauty laterals is usually confined to the 

 period during which the trees are making strong growth, as it rarely 

 occurs to any appreciable extent after they have settled down to fruit 

 bearing under normal conditions. The tendency with the Irish peach, 

 however, is to produce barren wood, both leader and lateral, during 

 th© whole life of the tree. From the time the tree is young, when 

 pruning operations commence, it is essential that they should be con- 

 tinued annually and without intermission during the life of the tree, as 

 if discontinued it soon becomes a willowy, weeping, tangled mass. If 

 allowed to remain in this condition for a few years, and particularly 

 if the soil is allowed to remain uncultivated, the wood, as well as the 

 fruit produced on it, shows, like other varieties of similar characteristics 



-JUi 



^1 



Plate 69. — Irish Peach, fourteen years old, unpruned. 



in this respect, a disposition to degenerate. Whereas, if its pruning 

 requirements receive regular attention annually, and with proper culti- 

 vation, the wood may be kept healthy, fruit of average size and quality 

 produced, and a tree with fairly good symmetrical appearance main- 

 tained. 



Generally speaking, this method of treatment keeps trees of delicate 

 constitution invigorated. But, owing mostly to the varying soil and 

 climatic conditions which are in the main responsible for the con- 

 tinually evolving variety characteristics, some of which render certain 

 varieties predisposed to degeneration, the fruit-grower should be on 

 his guard against the degenerate which, on being observed, may be 

 grafted over if the stock is sound, if not replaced by a more thrifty 

 variety. 



