PRUNING THE QUINCE. 71 



when trees have their crops destroyed by late frosts. An 

 excessive crop so far exhausts the nutritious matter 

 stored in the branches, that the tree takes an off year to 

 recover and lay up for the next. 



(#.) Pruning the Limbs to promote fruitfulness must 

 of necessity be done in the summer, when it will reduce 

 the young wood-growth, and so lead to such an accumu- 

 lation of sap in the branch as will organize the remaining 

 buds to produce fruit. " If of two unequal branches 



Fig. 47. FIVE TEAR OLD TREE AFTER PRUNING (From PTiotograph). 



the stronger is shortened, and stopped in its growth, the 

 other becomes stronger ; and this is one of the most 

 useful facts connected with pruning, because it enables a 

 skillful cultivator to equalize the rate of growth of all 

 parts of a tree." 



This shortening of the growing twigs should be done 

 when they are so tender they can be pinched off with the 

 thumb and finger. If the next bud immediately pushes 

 into another extension of the shoot, it will be necessary 

 to pinch off again a little further on, even to the third 



