PRUNING THE PRUNE 277 



new wood-growth, but if it has not too far weakened and still has 

 reserves, new fruiting wood can be promoted on old branches in- 

 stead of removing them. This is done by spur or twig pruning as 

 practiced by Mr. A. Taylor in the Santa Clara Valley: 



Clip all but three or four buds on the twigs on the outside of the tree, 

 not touching many twigs inside, except to thin them out where too thick. 

 This is done October to March none in summer, because he does not like 

 the evaporation. The cut is made just above a bud or short fruit spur not 

 just above a little limb, except in special cases. In the first year, some 

 effect, but not extensive, will be seen in the new fruit spurs forced out 

 from dormant buds further back on the limbs. New wood growth several 

 inches long will come from the two buds nearest the cut and also on the 

 undipped twigs farther down on the limb, which would not have put out 

 wood growth otherwise. 



Having clipped back the twigs for three years in succession, an ordinary 

 tree will have as much new wood as may be desirable, and no pruning 

 should be done in the next two years. As a rule each added year of clip- 

 ping brings out double the length of new wood. Specially vigorous trees 

 will have too much new wood. This should be thinned out by cutting 

 entire twigs off at their junction with the next larger ones. None should 

 be clipped, for that induces more wood. The thinning will not cause new 

 wood growth for a year or two, but the dormant buds at the base of the 

 thinned-out twigs may grow into fruit-bearing wood the following season 

 if end twigs have been clipped. 



The job is a slow one, but every cut heals over there are no rotting 

 stubs, and^ it forces fruit growth inside the tree, because the inside is filled 

 with fruiting limbs and spurs, which are distinguished from the suckers 

 by their oblique growing and the large number of close-together fruit buds 

 on them. 



Special Studies of Varieties in Pruning. The points just ad- 

 vanced apply especially to the management of the French prune. 

 The grower must be exhorted to study the habit of the variety he 

 has to deal with. The general rules for handling trees with different 

 habits of growth are applicable to a certain extent to the plum. 

 When to apply a rule or make an exception must be learned by 

 observation and experience. Some plums have something of the 

 growth habit of the peach, and this is also very true of some of the 

 Japanese varieties. Cutting back in winter and pinching in summer 

 are both useful facts in securing lower branching and low-growing 

 fruit spurs. Longer pruning of plums is successfully practiced in 

 the Sierra foothills where wood growth is not so free as in valley 

 situations. Mr. Ed Ames of Newcastle, whose experience with the 

 peach is given in Chapter XX, works in this way with his shipping 

 plums : 



With plums, all there is to do is to get them started right and then cut 

 out only the dead or broken wood. All the sap goes to fruit. The fruit is 

 generally of the fanciest sizes. The limbs bend to the ground but seldom 

 break and are seldom propped. They do not swing in any wind we have 

 here, enough to even brush the bloom from plums; partly because they 

 are always heavily loaded and low down. Some varieties of Japanese plums 

 require removal of some laterals; but Wickson, Formosa, Gaviota, and 

 Kelsey do not. 



The formation of the vase-form with continuous laterals, as dis- 

 cussed in Chapters XII and XX, is being successfully practiced by 

 some growers with plum varieties which need shorter pruning than 

 the French prune requires. 



