i go THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



Sometimes growths must be originated at the base as well as extremity of a branch, 

 alike for filling vacant space and for furnishing a succession of wood for bearing, as in 

 the Morel lo cherry, nectarine, and peach. This is effected by removing the foreright 

 shoots, B 5, and back-growths corresponding on the opposite side of the branch ; then 

 those on the upper side, B 6 ; last those on the under side, B 7. Thus the eighteen would- 

 be branches are reduced to three in the length of a foot namely, the two basal shoots, 

 B 3, 3, and the extension, B 4 ; the result will be stout, short-jointed, well-matured 

 wood, and perfectly-formed buds on them, as shown in D 8, 8, and part of the exten- 

 sion, D 9. The energy and substance of the twenty-one shoots shown on the branch, 

 0, are concentrated in the three growths of the branch, D. The one-year-old branch 

 generally produces fruit, as represented in the detached bunches of cherries, as well 

 as affords shoots for successional bearing and extension, but it is not customary to 

 originate two shoots at the base, the upper one usually sufficing, and when the lower is 

 dispensed with, the fruit is better nourished, growth only being allowed on the fruiting 

 branches for attracting the sap to assist the crop swelling to maturity. 



PROTECTION. 



Birds and Buds. Fruit crops are more or less endangered by bud-eating birds. The 

 Bullfinch (Pyrrhula vulgaris) is most assiduous in its attentions to fruit trees in winter 

 and spring, feeding on the buds, for which its strong bill is well adapted. It com- 

 mences its depredations on gooseberry bushes, alternating its dietary with plum buds, 

 and finishes on apple trees. A pair only of these birds do immense mischief, and we 

 have known all the trees and bushes in a large garden and orchard rendered practically 

 fruitless through bullfinches taking the buds. The bullfinch is remarkable for the 

 facility with which it is caught in a trap cage with a " call " bird, or it may be secured 

 with birdlime. Captured in either of those ways, the beautiful plumage of the birds 

 assures for them a ready sale, particularly as they are easily tamed, taught to pipe, and 

 even to articulate words. When accomplished in those respects they are sold at high 

 prices, as much as 4 or 5 being demanded for a single bird. It is better to sell 

 the birds than shoot them, especially as shooting among fruit trees damages them 

 seriously. 



The Common Sparrow (Passer domesticus) is active and fearless. The food of the 

 birds consists of grain, vegetable substances, and insects ; therefore, they are useful to 

 the fruit grower in their raids on destructive insect larvse when rearing their young. 



