158 



THE FRUIT GROWERS GUIDE. 



while firm, short-jointed, well-matured wood passes a severer ordeal unscathed. The im- 

 mediate object, however, is to show methods of cutting and their results. In Z7, Fig. 34, 

 is shown a shoot cut a considerable distance in advance of a bud on the same side, and 

 known as the u snag." ISTo harm results in leaving the snag, provided it be cut away to 

 near the bud, as indicated by the dotted bar, when growth is well advanced. The upper 

 bud, in consequence of the snag, diverges like a side -shoot instead of in line with the stem 

 as a leading shoot extension. Had the cut been made as shown in F, the growth from 

 the upper bud would, in consequence of the sap being concentrated upon it, have been 



Fig. 34. " CUTS " AND RESULTANT GROWTHS. (For description, see text.) 



impelled in a line with the branch, assuming its place without making an unsightly 

 curve. 



Pruning the shoot of a spreading tree and leaving a snag above the bud on the 

 same side causes the growth to extend as from a side-bud ; therefore when a tree is 

 desired to spread, the pruning may be done some distance above a bud, as shown in 

 the outside dotted lines from the upper bud in W\ but by making the cut at the oblique 

 dotted line nearer the bud the growth is more erect, which is important in trained trees. 

 The spreading growth from a side-bud is also shown in the figure. 



To insure straight growths, the shoots are often cut very close at the back, opposite 

 the buds as shown in X, but from the small quantity of wood behind the bud the growth 

 is usually weak. In the lower part of this also the next illustration, Y is shown 



