182 



Peach-Growing 



to the one shown in Plate XIII will not usually require much 

 attention so far as pruning is concerned during its first season 

 in the orchard. Perhaps a little pinching back of the three 

 or four main limbs as may be done with the fingers and with- 

 out the use of pruning shears would help to make them more 

 stocky. Such pinching back, however, should be done with 

 discretion and in most cases it may well be confined to such 

 limbs as are making the tree unsymmetrical by growing 

 faster than the others. This type of pruning should not be 

 done much after July 1 ; in the North perhaps the middle 



of June is as late as it 

 would be safe, since the 

 side shoots, the devel- 

 opment of which it is 

 likely to induce, should 

 have ample time to 

 ripen well before the 

 arrival of cold weather. 

 When a tree develops 

 such heavy dense growth 

 during the first season 

 following planting as is 

 shown in Fig. 10, a 

 moderate amount of 



Fig. 10. — A peach tree in July of its first 

 season's growth in a southern orchard. 



summer 



prunmg may 

 be important. This is 

 the case especially in the peach regions where the growing 

 season is very long, as in the South. The tree shown in 

 Fig. 10 is one planted early in the spring in a southern orchard. 

 The figure shows the tree as it looked early in the following 

 July. Pinching back the ends of the main limbs will help 

 to keep the tree s^Tnmetrical and it will also avoid the neces- 



