PRUNING AND TRAINING. 



123 



Fig. 55. availing trouble, and probably with positive injury 

 to the productiveness of the tree. The great diffi- 

 culty is to make the lower branches grow thrifty, 

 and in due proportion to the upper ones. The 

 whole secret lies in the management of the buds. 

 Every shoot and branch commences life as a bud ; 

 and it is in infancy that their proper number and 

 position must be determined. " Leave no more buds 

 upon a shoot whose growth you wish to increase 

 than can be maintained in perfect vigor. This will 

 generally be about one-third of the number of buds 

 produced ; so that of those shoots designed to re- 

 Astron ce i ve tne largest development, two-thirds of the 

 P knife g ~ last vear ' s growth must be cut off. These should 

 be shortened-in before they start in the spring. If 

 still the upper branches grow too strong, summer pinching 

 will furnish the requisite discipline for them. We have 

 always found it a 

 safe ancl correct 

 rule, when pruning 

 a fruit-tree of any 

 kind, to imagine 

 that a full-grown ap- 

 ple-tree was stand- 

 ing before us, with 

 no supernumerary 

 branches, and no 

 limbs crowding each 

 other, or riding one 

 on the other, like 

 the cut of a tree, 

 Fig. 56, which repre- 

 sents an apple-tree 

 that has been train- An apple-tree trained with a high top. 



Fig. 56. 



\ 



