94 GENERAL PBINCIPLES. 



absolutely necessary, for in tliem we must have the lower 

 branches always the strongest and longest, and it is only 

 by operating on the shoots, in their earliest stages of 

 growth, that we can fully attain this end ; for the strong- 

 est shoots do not always grow at the desired point, but by 

 timely attention they are perfectly within our control. 

 The various accidents and circumstances to which young 

 trees are subject, give rise, in a multitude of cases, to an 

 unequal distribution of the sap in their diiferent parts, 

 and this produces, to a greater or less extent, deformity of 

 growth. This, at once, shows the necessity for pinching, 

 to check the strong and favor the weak. 



PincJimg to ])roinote Fniiffidness. — Those who have 

 never practised this, or observed its results, may have 

 seen, if experienced in tree growing, that a shoot of which 

 the point was broken, bruised, or otherwise injured, dur- 

 ing the growing season, frequently becomes a fruit branch, 

 either during the same or the following season ; and this, 

 especially if situated in the interior of the tree, or on the 

 older and lower parts of the branches. The check given 

 to the extension of the shoot concentrates the sap in the 

 part remaining; and, unless the check has been given 

 very early in the season, or the growth very vigorous in 

 the tree, so that the buds will break and form shoots, 

 they are certain to prepare for the production of fruit. It 

 is on this principle of checking the growth, and concen- 

 trating the sap in the pinched shoot, that pinching to in- 

 duce fruitfulness is performed ; and its efficiency may be 

 estimated from the fact, that trees on which it has been 

 practised, have borne fruit four or five, and perhaps seven 

 years, sooner than they would have done without it. . 



It is a most useful operation in the case of vigorous 

 growing and tardy bearing sorts. The best illustration, on 

 a large scale in this country, is the specimen plantation of 

 pear trees of Messrs. Hovey & Co., of Boston. A large 



