THE PEACH. 



281 



PRUNING. 



No tree needs a more regular and constant pruning than 

 the peach, and none more frequently meets with total ne 

 gleet. The strong tendency of the sap to the ends of th\ 

 branches, causes the extreme points to run out longer in each 

 successive year, and the weaker side-shoots being thus de- 

 prived of their due nourishment, while at the same time they 

 are shaded by the leaves beyond them, gradually perish, 



ana leave tue Dare 

 limbs. As the tree ad- 

 vances in growth, these 

 become long, naked 

 branches, with tufts of 

 leaves only at their ex- 

 treme ends, fig. 229. 

 These extremeties are 

 loaded with an overcrop 

 of fruit, diminished in 

 flavor by crowding, and 

 often breaking the tree 

 under their lever - like 

 weight. Trees wholly 

 neglected in pruning, 

 Fig. 229. usually become by this 



process, of little value, after the lapse of some years. 



To avoid this unfavorable result, the shortening-in mode of 

 pruning has been very successfully adopted, which consists in 

 yearly cutting back the extremeties, so as to counteract the 

 spread of the limbs, and to lessen the weight of foliage. 



The most easy, uniform, and 

 certain rule to follow, in adopt- 

 ing this system of pruning, is to 

 cut off, early in spring or in win- 

 ter, about one-half each of all 

 the shoots of the previous sum- 

 mer's growth. This thins the 

 crop of fruit, and greatly redu- 

 ces the amount of leaves ; and 

 while the fruit is lessened in 

 number, the amount is not di- 

 230. minished, and the flavor is im 



