PINCHING. 



366 



PINCHING. 



as they approach the highest part of the 

 branch, and those quite at the extremity 

 will, unless arrested, acquire great develop- 

 ment. Now, it is only the weak buds that 

 become fruit spurs : it is therefore im- 

 portant to diminish their vigour. This 

 result is obtained by pinching. As soon 

 as the buds intended to form fruit branches 

 have attained a length of about four inches, 

 they must be pinched off with the nails." 

 In Fig 2 the right and wrong place at 

 which to pinch a shoot is shown, the 

 former being at A and the latter at B. 

 When pinched in the proper place, fruit 

 buds will be developed along the shoot 

 from its base to the extremity ; but if too 

 much has been taken off, leaving only three 

 or four leaves between the new extremity 

 and the base, the piece that remains may 

 cease altogether to grow, and ultimately 

 perish, leaving a bare space the next year, 

 or if it does not do this, in a year or 

 two years after the pinching buds may 

 appear on each side of the base of the 

 suppressed shoot, which, after the lapse 

 of two or three years more, develop into 

 flower buds. Sometimes premature buds 

 will spring from the axils of the lower 

 leaves immediately after the excessive 

 pinching, which may develop into fruit 

 spurs, but which never set for fruit so 

 freely as spurs from branchlets that have 

 not been shortened to more than three, or 

 at the utmost, two inches. 



On what Pinching Depends. In pinch- 

 ing, then, everything depends on the time 

 of growth at which each shoot is shortened, 

 and the extent to which the shortening is 

 carried. It has been shown that when 

 the shortening is too great, the shoot may 

 perish altogether, or that years may elapse 

 before proper fruiting takes place on it, 

 or that the fruit buds that are immediately 

 developed are weak and far from being as 

 productive as they ought to be. In the 

 first case, there is loss of material ; in the 



second, loss of time ; and in the third, loss 

 of power and vitality. 



Long Shoots, Treatment of. When any 

 shoots have been allowed to grow without 

 pinching until they have attained a length 

 of from 8 inches to 12 inches or even move, 

 they must not be pinched off at about 4 

 inches from the base, because this would 

 tend to cause the buds at the base or axils 

 of the leaves to develop into branchlets in 

 due time ; but they should be twisted round 

 without snapping them off at the distance 

 of four inches from the base, and the 

 extremity of each shoot nipped off. 



Second Year y Treatment in. With re- 

 gard to subsequent treatment, in the 

 second year it will be found that the 

 shoots on the branch which has been 

 shortened and pinched in the manner 

 described will have developed into a series 

 of small branches, of which those on the 

 lower third of the shoot are very short, 

 and those on the middle third only a little 

 longer than those on the lower third ; these 

 may be suffered to remain as they are, 

 as they will develop into fruit branches 

 without any further treatment. The shoots 

 on the upper third, although repeatedly 

 pinched during the summer, for the shoots 

 near the ends of the boughs do not take 

 their pinching so quietly as the lower 

 shoots, but put forth fresh growth, will 

 have formed shoots, more or less vigorous, 

 according to their position, towards the 

 end of the bough. The less vigorous ones 

 must be broken right off just above a bud, 

 at about three inches from the base, and 

 the more vigorous partly broken through 

 at the same distance from the base as the 

 less vigorous, and the shoots that have 

 been twisted the previous summer should 

 be broken off at the twist. Longer shoots 

 at the very extremity of the branch which 

 may have escaped pinching and have 

 attained a length of from 12 to 18 inches, 

 and are more or less thick, may be left 



