11 



narrow, and prominent, and the first year or two after 

 their appearance, produce but rosettes of leaves, yielding 

 fruit generally about the third year. On trees well fur- 

 nished with fi-uit spm-s, these slender branches are of 

 little accoimt, but they are useful 

 on young trees not fully in a bear- 

 ing state. They are generally pro- 

 duced on the lower or older parts 

 of the branches or stem, and, in 

 the first j)lace, are slender shoots 

 with wood buds only ; but owing to 

 their unfavorable position and fee- 

 ble structure, they receive only a 

 small portion of the ascending sap, 

 and the consequence is, they be- 

 come stunted, and transformed 

 into fruit branches. In pruning 

 young trees, slender shoots are fre- 

 quently bent over, or fastened in a 

 crooked position to transform them 

 into fruit branches of this kind ; 

 but this will be treated of in its 

 proper place. 



Certain varieties of apples have 

 a natm-al habit of bearing the fruit 

 on the points of the lateral shoots ; 

 and frequently these terminal fruit 

 buds are formed during the first 

 season's growth of the shoot. Fig. 

 11 is an example ; A is the point 



where a fmit was borne last season; B, a shoot of last 

 season ; and C its terminal bud, which is a fruit bud. 

 The fruit branches of the peachy apricot^ and nectarine^ 

 are };roductions of one season's growth ; the fruit bnds 

 for:u one soiison and blossom the next: but as on the 



Fig. 10. 



F!g, 10, slender fruit branch 

 of the apple— all the buds are 

 fruit buds. Fig. 11, a branch 

 of the apple showing the ten- 

 dency of some varieties to 

 bear on the points of the 

 branches. A, the point where 

 a fruit was borne last season ; 

 B, a shoot of last year ; C, its 

 terminal fruit bud. 



