PRUNING WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO PARTICULAR FRUITS 463 



orchard illustrates more nearly the vase or goblet shaped form than almost 

 any other species. This thinning out is then followed by as severe head- 

 ing back of the shoots as is compatible with leaving enough good fruit 

 buds — or flowers if the operation has been delayed until the blooming 

 season — to provide for a full crop. If the number and distribution of 

 buds is such that the heading back can be rather severe the new shoot 

 growth will be forced to come out rather low and the tree will be kept 

 relatively compact, though the fruiting wood of the following season will 

 be necessarily somewhat farther out from the trunk than that of the 

 current season. 



One result of the heading back will be a crowding of the new shoot 

 growth; this will increase with the severity of the heading back. The 

 result is comparatively long slender shoots, from whose nodes the leaves 

 soon fall because they are shaded. Only leaf buds will be formed in 

 their axils; these will be small and quite likely to remain latent the 

 following year. Fruit buds are formed chiefly on the median or apical 

 portions of these crowding shoots or on their secondary lateral branches. 

 This necessitates a less severe heading back the following spring if fruit 

 buds sufficient in number for a good crop are to be left and the bearing 

 portion of the tree is pushed farther away from the trunk. Some shoots 

 will probably develop in the interior of the tree from latent or adven- 

 titious buds on the main limbs. These should be saved for renewal 

 purposes, though usually it is only a matter of time before a general 

 "dehorning" becomes necessary in order to lower the top and make 

 the tree sufficiently compact for economical production. 



A practice seldom employed, but frequently desirable, is an early 

 summer thinning out of the new shoots. Ordinarily this should be done 

 in late June or early July, considerably before terminal bud formation 

 is under way. It reduces crowding and the remaining shoots are less 

 likely to become long because their internodes remain shorter. Their 

 leaves are better lighted and those at the basal nodes persist through the 

 season instead of falling prematurely. Consequently fruit buds form at 

 these basal nodes as well as at the median or distal. This makes it 

 possible to head back much more severely the following spring and still 

 leave provision for a full crop. The fruiting zone is not carried so 

 far from the trunk each year and dehorning is not so frequently necessary. 

 Furthermore, the fruit buds at the more basal nodes enter the dormant 

 period at a relatively less advanced stage of development than those 

 farther out on the shoots. This makes them somewhat more resistant 

 to winter cold and a httle slower in opening the following spring. The 

 practice also results in the development of many very short shoots that 

 amount almost to fruit spurs bearing lateral fruit buds — a fruiting habit 

 closely resembling that of the apricot or almond. This means in effect 

 a tree that mechanically is much stronger than the average. The summer 



