PRUNING 87 



up " the tree and is essentially different from heading-back, 

 inasmuch as the ends of shoots or branches are not cut off. 

 As a result, the terminal bud continues the growth of the 

 branches and the lateral buds usually develop into branches 

 or spurs or remain dormant. Gardner has calculated on 

 this basis that of 100 shoots bearing ten lateral buds each 

 and also a terminal bud in this case, a light thinning out 

 (30 per cent) would leave 770 buds— 700 lateral and 70 

 terminal. It was then assumed that from these 70 shoots 

 "we obtain 140 shoots and 490 spurs, leaving 140 dormant 

 buds," which is considered not far from what would actually 

 be obtained. From a heavy thinning-out (60 per cent) of 

 this same number of shoots there would be 40 untouched 

 ones. These would probably behave in much the same 

 manner as the branches on the lightly thinned tree. ''Were 

 this the case the result would be eighty new shoots (forty 

 from the terminal buds and forty from as many lateral buds), 

 about three hundred twenty spurs, and forty dormant buds. 

 The individual spurs would be thicker and more vigorous 

 in appearance, but probably the proportion of buds to develop 

 into fruit-spurs would remain about the same." Thus a 

 light thinning-out gives more shoots and fruit-spurs than a 

 heavy one. 



The results of this estimate, based on extensive observation 

 and experiment, are summarized in Table XIV. 



