114 



THE AMERICAN PEACH ORCHARD 



as can be stated in a single rule and in general terms. 

 However, even at this rate the trees will still soon 

 outgrow their bounds and will require additional 

 shortening. In districts where an occasional crop 

 is lost through frosts or winter freezing, advantage 

 is taken of the fallow year to cut back the trees 

 much more severely. Considerable portions of the 

 heads are removed, the operator cutting back into 

 wood two, three or even four years old. Such 

 severe pruning, however is hard on the trees and 

 tends to make them shorter lived. It may be worth 

 doing in spite of that fact, inasmuch as the peach is 

 a short-lived crop under any circumstances. 



SUMMER PRUNING 



This necessity for the repression of growth in the 

 peach tree has caused many practical men to experi- 

 ment carefully with 

 summer pruning. 

 In fact, this method 

 of summer pruning 

 is coming into con- 

 siderable favor in 

 the best peach- 

 growing sections, 

 though it must be 

 confessed that no 

 one has a very sat- 

 isfactory and well- 

 settled system of 

 carrying on the 

 work. 



Summer pruning 

 should be practiced relatively early in the growing 

 season, that is, when the shoots have made about 



TWO-YEAR PEACH TREE 



