CHAPTER X 



PRUNING PEACH TREES 



There is probably no other operation in the production of 

 fruit concerning which such wide differences of opinion and 

 practice prevail as in the pruning of trees. The fact that 

 trees may produce abundantly under practically all systems 

 of pruning or with no pruning whatever forces the con- 

 clusion that the operation is one to which dogmatic rule-of- 

 thumb directions cannot be safely applied. However, as a 

 general proposition, the most successful fruit-growers habitu- 

 ally prune their trees, and in doing so they usually follow 

 more or less closely some plan or system, even though they 

 have no clear-cut conception of just what their plan 

 involves. 



Before an architect begins to draw the plans for a building 

 he must have a mental picture of the completed structure, 

 at least so far as the main features are concerned. He must 

 know what details are necessary at every step, as he develops 

 the plans, in order to produce the desired results. Similarly, 

 the man who prunes a fruit-tree during its first years must 

 have a clear conception of what the tree is to look like when it 

 reaches maturity, and he needs to know from the beginning 

 what is necessary each time it is pruned in order to develop 

 the tree which forms his mental vision. Of course such a 

 picture can develop fully only with experience and as one 



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