220 



PRUNING. 



CHAPTER II. 



PRUNING AND TRAINING APPLIED TO THE DIF- 

 FERENT SPECIES OF FRUIT-TREES UNDER 

 VARIOUS FORMS. 



SECTION 1. PRUNING THE APPLE AND THE PEAK. 



These two trees belong to the same genus, Pyrus ; 

 their habits of growth and bearing are similar, and they 

 may therefore be treated, as regards their pruning, under 

 the same head. 



If we take, for example, a shoot of last season (fig. 7), 

 we find it, in the spring, before vegetation commences, 

 furnished on all its length with wood-buds ; when growth 

 commences, the terminal bud, and probably two or three 

 of the others nearest to it, produce shoots ; the others to- 

 wards the middle produce small shoots that are, in subse- 

 quent years, transformed into fruit branches (like fig. 10). 

 Some do not push at all, but are converted into fruit- 

 buds (as in figs. 8 and 9), whilst those at the base gener- 

 ally remain dormant, until excited into growth by close 

 pruning. All the buds on these trees have small, incon- 

 spicuous buds at their base, which are capable of produc- 

 ing shoots when the principal bud is destroyed or injured, 

 and these buds render the fruit-spurs so enduring. In 

 young trees, the fruit-buds are many years in process of 

 formation, and in bearing trees, three to four years, ac- 

 cording to circumstances. When the trees are not sub- 

 jected to pruning, the result of the mode of growth 

 described is, that the terminal buds grow and form one 

 section upon another, leaving the lower parts mainly des- 



