GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 



older and lower parts of the branches. The check given 

 to the extension of the shoot concentrates the sap in the 

 part remaining ; and, unless the check has been given 

 very early in the season, or the growth is very vigorous in 

 the tree, so that the buds will break and form shoots, they 

 are certain to prepare for the production of fruit. It is 

 on this principle of checking the growth and concentrat- 

 ing the sap in the pinched shoot, that pinching to induce 

 fruitfulness is performed ; and its efficiency may be esti- 

 mated from the fact, that trees on which it has been prac- 

 tised, have borne fruit four or five, and perhaps seven 

 years, sooner than they would have done without it. 



It is a most useful operation in the case of vigorous 

 growing and tardy bearing sorts. The mode of performing 

 it is to pinch off the end of the shoot with the finger and 

 thumb ; if a small portion of the remaining part be bruis- 

 ed, no matter, it offers a greater check than if a clean cut 

 were made, as in pruning to a bud ; and in the general 

 winter or spring pruning which follows, the bruised parts 

 can be cleanly separated. The time to perform it depends 

 wholly on circumstances. If the object be to regulate 

 growth, then the time to do it is when the tendency to 

 undue or ill-proportioned growth is first observable, and 

 this will be from the'. time the young shoots are two to 

 three inches long and upwards. The particular season of 

 the year or day of the month will, of course, depend upon 

 the earliness or lateness of the season, and on the soil and 

 situation as well as on the habits of growth of the species 

 or variety to be operated on. The true way is to be al- 

 ways on the watch. If the object be to induce fruitful- 

 ness, the length which the shoots should attain before 

 being pinched, depends upon the nature or mode of growth 

 and bearing of the species, and will be more definitely 

 treated hereafter, under the head of "The Pruning of 

 Trees;" the object now being merely to indicate general 

 principles and modes of operating. To illustrate this, let 



