462 FUNDAMENTALS OF FRUIT PRODUCTION 



Neither fruits nor flowers are again borne upon it. New growth develops 

 from the terminal bud or from lateral leaf buds at some of the non-flower- 

 ing nodes or in some instances from adventitious or latent buds lower in 

 the tree. It is therefore characteristic of the peach to have its fruiting 

 wood carried a foot or two further out and up each year, leaving long 

 stretches of non-fruiting wood that serves only as a connecting link 

 between the fruiting periphery of the tree and its root system. 



Seldom does the peach tree of bearing age fail to differentiate enough 

 fruit buds for a heavy crop. In fact it commonly produces many more 

 than are desired, so that some pruning is advisable for the purpose of 

 thinning the crop. Furthermore, since the fruit buds are produced each 

 year on the new wood of the current season there is no danger of rendering 

 the tree unproductive for a period of several years, as in the apple or the 

 pear, by cutting away its fruiting wood. Therefore the two main prob- 

 lems in pruning this fruit are to thin the crop and to "keep the tree within 

 bounds," that is, to prevent its fruiting wood from developing so far away 

 from the trunk that propping, picking, spraying and fruit thinning involve 

 too much expense. Almost any kind of pruning serves the latter purpose 

 if it is severe enough; on the other hand the location of the new fruiting 

 wood and the distribution of its fruit buds depend very considerably on 

 the type of pruning that is employed. In fact it would not be far from 

 correct to say that in the bearing peach tree the severity of pruning 

 should be governed largely by the amount of crop thinning required and 

 its kind should be determined by the desired distribution of the following 

 season's fruiting branches and fruit buds. 



When and How Severely. — The bearing peach tree should be pruned 

 lightly or heavily, depending on whether it gives promise of bearing just 

 enough or too much, if little or no pruning is done. As a rule prospects 

 cannot be estimated accurately until the trees are in bloom or even until 

 the fruit has set, on account of danger from late spring frosts. Conse- 

 quently it is wise to wait until that time and then to prune with the aim 

 of providing as nearly as possible a full crop but still of reducing the labor 

 of fruit thinning to a minimum. If crop prospects are ruined by a late 

 frost the trees can be dehorned advantageously, because this heavy 

 pruning will not result in any loss of fruit and since new growth for the 

 following season's production will be forced to develop from the main 

 scaffold limbs, the bearing surface will be lowered and made more com- 

 pact. If midwinter or late winter freezing destroys the fruit buds this 

 same type of pruning can be done earlier. 



Pruning to Secure Most Favorable Location of Fruiting Surface. — 

 The usual method of pruning the bearing peach tree comprises such thin- 

 ning out as seems necessary, this thinning consisting generally in the 

 removal of wood from the center of the tree so as to provide an extreme 

 open center. In fact the average peach tree as found in the commercial 



