168 THE PRINCIPLES OF PRUNING 



ture is the fact that it caught the rising com- 

 mercial spirit of the time and threw off the bonds 

 of the amateur. 



These remarks will, I hope, put the reader in 

 the right attitude towards all these petty matters 

 of pruning, as it will towards the common fault 

 of putting emphasis first on varieties and other 

 isolated, local and personal facts. If a person must 

 train his pear tree or peach tree to a wall or a 

 trellis, then he must perforce count his buds, 

 force spurs to arise at stated intervals, and be 

 familiar with the refinements of pinching, ring- 

 ing and notching Grape training is much con- 

 fused because people do not distinguish that it 

 involves two sets of ideas, the pruning to remove 

 superfluous wood, and the training into some set 

 form. The number of buds to leave on the cane 

 depends more on the system of training than on 

 the principles of pruning. 



We have already enunciated a principle which 

 underlies the results of the notching and bend- 

 ing of shoots (Section 10). Full directions for 

 performing these operations may be found in 

 European writings. It may only be said here that 

 these practices are not generally productive of 

 predictable results in fruit -bearing; but the ob- 

 struction to the movement of elaborated sap 

 tends to develop fruit, whereas the obstruction 

 to the movement of crude or root -sap tends to 

 develop wood. 



