BKANCIIES. 



11 



narrow, and prominent, and the first year or two after 

 their appearance, prodnce bnt rosettes of leaves, yielding 

 fruit generally about the third year. On trees well fur- 

 nished with fruit spurs, these slender branches are of 

 little account, but they are useful 

 on young trees not fully in a bear- 

 ing state. They are generally pro- 

 duced on the low^er or older parts 

 of the branches or stem, and, in 

 the first j^lace, are slender shoots 

 with wood buds only ; but owing to 

 their unfavorable position and fee- 

 ble structure, they receive only a 

 small portion of the ascending sap, 

 and the consequence is, they be- 

 come stunted, and transformed 

 into fruit branches. In pruning 

 young trees, slender shoots are fre- 

 quently bent over, or fastened in a 

 crooked position to transform them 

 into fruit branches of this kind ; 

 but this will be treated of in its 

 proper place. 



Certain varieties of apples have 

 a natural habit of bearing the fruit 

 on the points of the lateral shoots ; 

 and frequently these terminal fruit 

 buds are formed during the first 

 season's growth of the shoot. Fig. 

 11 is an example ; A is the point 



where a fniit was borne last season ; ^, a shoot of last 

 season ; and O its terminal bud, which is a fruit bud. 

 The fruit branches of the peachy ajpricot^ and nectarine^ 

 are productions of one season's growth ; the fruit buds 

 form one season and blossom the next; but as on th<^ 



Fig. 10. 



Fig. 11 



Fig, 10, slender fruit branch 

 of the apple — all the buds are 

 fruit buds. Fig. 11, a branch 

 of the apple showing the ten- 

 dency of some varieties to 

 bear on the points of the 

 branches. ^4, the point where 

 a fruit was borne last season ; 

 B, a shoot of last year; C, its 

 terminal fruit bud. 



