CHAPTER II. 



PETJlSriNG APPLIED TO THE DIFFEKETfT SPECIES OF 

 FEUIT TEEES UN^DER DIFFEEENT FOEaiS. 



Section 1. — Peunestg the Apple and the Peak. 



These two trees belong to tlie same natural order, ^o- 

 macecB^ and to the same genus 2?yrus ; their habits of 

 growth and beai'ing are similar, and thej may therefore 

 be treated as regards their pruning, mider the same 

 head. 



If we take for examj^le a shoot of last season (fig. 6), we 

 find it in the spring, before vegetation commences, fm*- 

 nished on all its length with wood buds ; when growth 

 commences, the terminal bud, and probably two or three 

 of the others nearest to it, produce shoots, the others to- 

 wards the middle produce small shoots that are in subse- 

 quent years transformed into fruit branches (like fig. 10). 

 Some do not push at all, but are converted into fruit 

 buds (as in figs. Y and 8), whilst those at the base gene- 

 rally remain dormant, until excited into growth by close 

 pruning. All the buds on these trees have small incon- 

 spicuous buds at their base, which are capable of produc- 

 ing shoots when the principal bud is destroyed or injm-ed, 

 and these buds render the fruit spm-s so enduring. In 

 young trees the fruit buds are many years in process of 

 fonuation, and in bearing trees three to four years, accord- 



