PRUNING OF TREES AND ORNAMENTALS. 135 



for continued growth of firm bearing wood. He says: 

 "Let us take a healthy tree in the orchard or garden in 

 its first blossoming year. It is usually about six to eight 

 feet high, its well-shaped head branching out about three 

 feet from the ground. It has never yet been trimmed, 

 except to regulate any deformity in its shape, and this is 

 so much the better. 



"At the end of February, or as early in the spring as 

 may be, we commence pruning. This consists only of 

 sliorteniny-in, i.e., cutting off half the last year 's growth 

 over the whole outside of the head of the tree, and also 

 upon the inner branches. As the usual average growth is 

 from one to two feet, we shall necessarily take off from six 

 to twelve inches. It need not be done with precise 

 measurement; indeed, the strongest shoots should be 

 shortened back most, in order to bring up the others, and 

 any long or projecting limbs that destroy the balance of 

 the head should be cut back to a uniform length. This 

 brings the tree into a well-rounded shape. By reducing 

 the young wood one half, we at the same moment reduce 

 the coming crop one half in number. The remaining 

 half, receiving all the sustenance of the tree, are of double 

 the size. The young shoots, which start out abundantly 

 from every part of the tree, keep it well supplied with 

 bearing wood for the next year, while the -greater luxuri- 

 ance and size of the foliage, as a necessary consequence, 

 produces larger and higher-flavored fruit." 



Where peach-trees are not subject to injury of top, as in 

 southern Georgia at Tifton, or in California, the Downing 

 plan, with such modifications as the age of the tree sug- 

 gests, is still followed by methodic growers, with the added 

 work of cutting out dead wood and all wood that has lost 

 its usefulness. But in sections where the new wood is 

 occasionally injured by winter, pruning is done on the 



