The Principles of Fruit -groiving. 



all its buds to bring out the feeble life 

 which is still left to it ; but these cases 

 are comparatively rare. It is probable 

 that the greater number of reported in- 

 stances of death due to heavy pruning 

 of winter -injured trees are of such trees 

 as would have died under any treatment. 

 Winter -killed plants often retain suffi- 

 cient vitality to enable them to leaf out- 

 or to bloom, and sometimes even to be- 

 gin growth, but when the stored vital- 

 ity of the tissues is exhausted the plant 

 perishes. This explains the phenomenon, 

 which, after a bad winter, nearly always 

 puzzles the inobservant fruit-grower, of 

 trees starting into feeble growth and 

 then suddenly dying when warm and dry 

 weather approaches. 



Winter -killing of the fruit- 

 buds. In severe winters, the 

 entire fruit -spur (in the spur- 

 fruits, as apples, pears, plums 

 and apricots) may be killed 

 outright, but the commoner 

 case is the death of the 

 bud only. The bud may be 

 entirely killed, in which case 

 it soon turns brown through- 

 out its entire diameter and the flower never opens : 

 or only the pistil (the central organ, which ripens into 

 the fruit) may be killed, in which case the flower may 



Fig. 48. Showing the new tissue 

 formed around winter-injured wood. 



