THE SUMMER PRUNING. 309 



has then expended considerable strength in bursting 

 these forth, and is deprived of some foliage, it 

 weakens the remaining parts, and induces that con- 

 dition which is favorable to fruitfulness. If it had 

 been performed earlier, all the force of spring life, 

 which would have been distributed through all 

 these buds, is concentrated in those remaining, and 

 the result would have been still greater vigor and 

 less fruitfulness. 



No precise time can be assigned for summer prun- 

 ing. It must extend through a great part of the 

 season of growth. It should be used in reference 

 to the winter pruning. All gourmands, or watery 

 shoots, which are taking a wrong direction, should 

 be pinched before they have become so strong as to 

 draw necessary nourishment from other parts. All 

 stone-fruits are liable to exude gum from their 

 wounds after severe pruning, so that summer prun- 

 ing with them should be only the prevention of the 

 formation of shoots by disbudding them before 

 actually grown. If some should escape attention, 

 it will be better to permit them to remain until the 

 winter pruning, when the sap is moving sluggishly, 

 and the wound will heal readily. With those fruits 

 which bear upon the growth of the last season, as 

 the peach, the laterals, which are designed for pro- 

 duction, should not be disbudded or shortened to 

 the proper length until the winter pruning, else 

 they would burst all the eyes upon them, and fill 



