112 THE AMERICAN PEACH ORCHARD 



during the first year of growth in the orchard, and 

 considerable pains should be spent at this time to 

 see that a proper beginning is made. 



In the first place, the tree should be kept growing 

 vigorously in order that a sufficient number of 

 straight, clean branches may be thrown out. It is 

 then well worth the time and money which it costs 

 to go through the orchard two or three times during 

 the growing season, rubbing out by hand weak, 

 misplaced shoots. Early in the season the tree 

 grower can select the three, four or five desired 

 main shoots, seeing that they are symmetrically 

 placed. All the others can be quickly snipped out 

 or broken out with the bare hands. It is much more 

 difficult to make such selections if the work is left 

 until the following spring, and if it be neglected for 

 two or three years, a proper framework can never 

 be designed. 



At the beginning of the second spring each young 

 tree should, therefore, consist of a very short cen- 

 tral stem surmounted by three, four or five, prefer- 

 ably four, fine, strong, fairly upright lateral shoots. 

 These should be symmetrically placed so as to carry 

 the well-balanced head. The shoots should vary in 

 length from 8 inches to 2 feet, a fair average growth 

 being 12 inches. Early in the spring they should be 

 gone over with a pair of hand pruning shears, the 

 main shoots shortened in one-third to one-half the 

 previous year's growth, and the whole head shaped 

 up as smoothly as possible. The orchard should 

 then be gone over from one to three times during 

 the growing season of the second year. At these 

 prunings, the growth of the tree can be consistently 

 regulated, the general ideal being to secure two or 

 three clean, straight, well-placed secondary branches 

 on each of the main laterals of the year before. 



