81 



of wood and leaves. Consequently, whatever 

 treatment a tree receives, calculated to ob- 

 struct the flow of the sap. or to accumulate it 

 at any point, causes the formation of blossom- 

 buds, and the subsequent production of fruit. 

 There are a variety of modes to accomplish 

 this, which will be described in the proper 

 place. This end is- attained by pruning, 



1st. By pruning the top. Hence the excel- 

 lent practice, above described, of shortening-in 

 the Peach, Nectarine, and Apricot, has this 

 farther desirable result of causing the sap to 

 collect in the remainder of the branches. 

 While we thus diminish the bearing wood, 

 and of course the number of specimens of the 

 fruit, we greatly enhance the valuable of the 

 crop. For one large peach and it is gener- 

 ally true of other fruits is worth twice its 

 weight of smaller ones of the same variety. 

 A similar shortening-in of trained fruit trees, 

 practised in England, at mid-summer, causes 

 fruitfuiness, upon the same principle. Thin- 

 ning out the crowded head of a large tree, 

 also has the same effect, the superabundance 

 of sap, supplied by the roots and trunk, indu- 

 cing the growth both of wood and fruit 5 in 

 the remaining parts. 



