28o Missouri Agr. Exp. Sta. Research Bulletin No. 8 



the loss of the crop following the spring it is done. However, in the 

 Missouri peach section on all except the high land, at least, the crop 

 is likely under average conditions to be lost probably half of the 

 time and in such yearsitcertainly is advisable to give the trees rather 

 severe cutting back. In none of the experiments above mentioned, 

 however, has it proved an advantage to cut the limbs back so severely 

 that only short stubs, say two or three feet long, are left. In this 

 case the growth will be so vigorous and there will be so much shade 

 that very few fruit buds will form, during the following summer. 

 The tree will also be so greatly reduced in size that even though a 

 crop may be secured the year following, there will be bearing surface 

 for only a small crop. Cutting back into two-year-old wood or 

 sometimes into three-year-old wood and shearing the small growth 

 off the limbs so that there will be only stocky, vigorous twigs to form 

 in summer, has secured the best results. The cutting back should 

 be light enough that buds will form practically to the base of all of 

 the new twigs. With pruning like this a large bearing surface is 

 left and a large number of buds generally set. Observation has uni- 

 formly indicated that following periods when part of the buds are 

 killed, most of the fruit will be borne on the twigs down along the 

 limbs rather than on the very vigorously growing twigs that form 

 along the top of the limbs. No such twigs will be formed along the 

 limbs where the tree has been given too heavy pruning as where the 

 limbs are left only three to five feet long. 



For these southern Missouri conditions the pruning in years 

 when there is a crop should be as severe as can be given and yet se- 

 cure a maximum crop of the best quality of fruit from the tree. If 

 this is practiced there will be later pushing of buds the following 

 winter and in some years a slightly later blooming on trees so pruned 

 than on trees that have had less pruning. However, where the soil 

 is very thin it may be impossible to keep the trees in a sufficiently 

 rapidly growing condition to secure a prolonged rest period without 

 too greatly reducing the size of the tree. In this case the vigor 

 should be kept up by a combination of pruning, cultivation and 

 fertilizing with nitrogen (or a complete fertilizer if it is proved that 

 other elements than nitrogen are needed in the given soil). 



In fertilizing with nitrogen, however, to keep up the vigor of 

 the trees, caution should be used because heavy applications of nitro- 

 gen-bearing fertilizers seriously injure the color of the fruit borne the 

 summer following, and cause fruit to rot. This has been our experience 

 each year at Brandsville, Missouri. Increasing the vigor by pruning 

 does not have this effect to any appreciable extent, but generally 



