HORTICULTURE 83 



These young plants are usually reduced to a single stem or whip at 

 planting time, the head being formed from the shoots which develop 

 along the body of the tree during the first year of its growth. It is an 

 easy matter to go over the newly planted tree and rub off such shoots 

 as are not desired. 



Forming the Head. Practically the same rule that holds for 

 forming the head of the apple and the pear is adhered to in forming 

 the body branches of the peach, three or four being the number most 

 frequently used. These shoots are, at the close of the first season, 

 shortened back to about 1 foot in length and are allowed to divide 

 into three or four branches during the next season's growth. The 

 same heading-back and multiplication of the branches takes place 

 the next year. At planting time, however, the main stem of the tree, 

 which carries the roots but no lateral branches, is seldom more than 

 2 feet in height, so that when the framework branches develop from 

 it the head of the tree is not more than 18 or 20 inches from the 

 ground. This arrangement enables workmen standing upon the 

 ground to gather the fruit during the first three or four years of the 

 fruit-bearing period. As the tree grows older and the branches be- 

 come longer, it is necessary to employ picking stands of some descrip- 

 tion. The best growers, however, systematically shorten the annual 

 growth of all of their orchard trees. 



Freezing. In the Southern States, where trees are not likely 

 to be injured by freezing, this pruning can be done during the fall 

 or early winter, but in the northern portions of the peach-growing 

 area of the United States it is best to delay heading-in until all dan- 

 ger of winter killing is past. It frequently happens that the freezes 

 are severe enough to reduce the annual growth as much as it is de- 

 sirable to reduce it by pruning, and had the pruning been done be- 

 fore the freezing occurred there might have been an entire loss of the 

 peach crop ; but when pruning is delayed until all danger of freezing 

 is past the pruning can be* gauged so as to reduce the fruit-bearing 

 wood in proportion to the capacity of the tree, for, as is well known, 

 the peach bears its fruit upon wood of the last season's growth rather 

 than upon fruit spurs, as in the case with the apple and pear, For 

 this reason, therefore, the heading-back of peach trees plays an im- 

 portant part in thinning the crop. 



Shape of the Tree. Ordinarily it will be found most satisfac- 

 tory to prune the peach so as to make a broad, round-headed tree 

 rather than a pyramidal or vase-shaped tree. In certain localities 

 the vase-shaped tree may be found the most desirable, but as the 

 fruit is always borne on the outside or upon the new wood of the tree, 

 it is in a position to receive full sunlight, and the open-headed vase- 

 shaped form is therefore less desirable than in the case of fruits which 

 are borne well inside the tree. 



Pruning the Plum and the Cherry. The habit of the plum to 

 bear early and abundantly under favorable conditions limits its an- 

 nual growth to such an extent that after the bearing age is attained 

 little annual pruning is necessary other than to remove dead or in- 

 terfering limbs or to head back an occasional strong shoot which 



