98 FRUIT-GROWING 



A good friend of mine, who is one of the 

 most expert growers that I know, prunes very 

 early in the spring just after the buds have 

 swollen but before they have opened. He says 

 that at this time he can determine which are 

 fruit-bearing branches and which are not and 

 when he has a choice between two branches he 

 takes off the one having the least fruit. All of 

 which sounds logical, but in doing the same 

 stunt myself I have found that the aver- 

 age pruner would destroy enough fruit buds at 

 that season more than to compensate for any 

 he had saved by the selection of branches. 

 When the fruit buds have started to swell you 

 will find they are very easily broken off and if 

 an awkward workman is allowed to browse 

 around a tree very much at that season he will 

 knock off a peck or two of fruit buds without 

 half trying. 



Summer pruning is said to stimulate the pro- 

 duction of fruit, but to do this the operation 

 must be done at exactly the right time. The 

 theory is that the branches should be taken off 

 at the time when the reserve food supply has 

 run very low. To reduce the leaf area of a tree 

 at such a time gives it a very severe shock and 

 brings into action that old biological law that I 

 have mentioned before. The tree is "threat- 

 ened with destruction" and as a result the re- 

 productive processes are set up and a crop of 



