188 Peach-Growing 



frosts or freezes that have endangered the fruit-buds. If 

 the buds prove to be uninjured, a considerable reduction of 

 the previous season's growth may be desirable as the cheapest 

 way of partially reducing the prospective excessively large 

 crop to the amount which the tree can successfully carry. 

 On the other hand if the buds have suffered heavily from ad- 

 verse temperatures, it may be unwise to reduce the number 

 at all by heading back or otherwise decreasing the previous 

 season's growth of wood. The same may be true though 

 for a different cause, if for any reason, such as a severe 

 drought, the tree made very little growth of new wood the 

 season before. 



Still another feature enters into the problem of heading 

 back. This is the position of the fruit-buds on the new 

 growth. In some varieties or under some conditions, most 

 of the fruit-buds form near the base of the twigs ; in others, 

 towards the terminal ends ; while in still others, the buds are 

 uniformly distributed the entire length of the twigs. More- 

 over, some varieties under certain conditions develop many 

 short spur-like twigs along the main branches and larger 

 limbs which are little less than fruit spurs and on which much 

 fruit is commonly borne. The manner in which the trees 

 are pruned influences materially the formation of these spur- 

 like twigs. Again, fruit-buds may be borne in pairs, one on 

 either side of a leaf-bud or singly. These two formations are 

 shown in Plate XV. The position of the fruit-buds in rela- 

 tion to the leaf-buds is shown in Plate XVI. Without 

 further elaboration of details, it will be apparent that these 

 various positions occupied by fruit-buds in some varieties 

 or under certain conditions must be fully taken into account 

 in heading back the trees, else the results are likely to be very 

 different from what the pruner expects. 



