Slimmer Pruning Dwarf Fruit Trees. 299 



a bush or thicket of yonug shoots. In the former case, the 

 leaves are in the free enjoyment of hght and air ; in the lat- 

 ter, they tend to shade and choke each other, unless pre- 

 vented by summer pruning. The instructions for this opera- 

 tion may be briefly expressed, but, in order that they may be 

 judiciously followed up, a few preliminary observations will 

 be necessary. 



"Every leaf has a bud formed in the angle between its base, 

 or footstalk, and the shoot on which it is situated. Some of 

 these buds now forming will push into shoots in the following 

 season ; some may push even in the present, and form what 

 are termed laterals; and others will ever remain dormant, or 

 only progress annuallji^ as the successive layers of alburnum 

 'are deposited, but never appearing externally, unless artifi- 

 cially excited. This may be done to some extent by afford- 

 ing an extra supply of nourishment, but with more decided 

 effect by pruning. If a shoot or branch is shortened, the 

 consequence is, generally speaking, an increased development 

 of those buds that are left. The flow of sap that would 

 have been appropriated by the buds removed will be shared 

 by those that remain, and hence they will be stimulated to 

 greater activity, 



" Supposing a shoot of last summer's growth, eighteen 

 inches in length, furnished with eighteen buds, if left un- 

 shortened at the winter pruning, it is very probable that only 

 three or four of the whole number would have pushed into 

 shoots, and these situated near the extremity, all the others 

 below remaining dormant. If this shoot had been cut back 

 to within six inches of its base in autumn several of the 

 buds that would otherwise remained dormant would have 

 certainly pushed. If every shoot had been cut back close to 

 its base, latent buds must have burst into shoots from the 

 older wood. 



" From what has been stated, the general effects of short- 

 ening will be sufficiently understood. There are, however, 

 some circumstances connected with the shortening of summer 

 shoots which require to be pointed out. When the shoot of 

 last season was supposed to be shortened at the winter prun- 

 ing, its wood at the base was mature, and the buds on the 

 portion left were ready to push in spring, thus affording 



