3io THE NEW GARDENING 



This is interesting, is it not ? This tree this agglo- 

 meration of bark, pith and leaf ; this mass of cells with 

 their sap and protoplasm has the power of developing 

 coloured leaves, (the corolla) stamens, ova,ry, style and 

 pistil, and of packing them in a tight mass in a bud, 

 which presently expands into a cluster of tiny fruits. It 

 has the power to do this, and we, by summer pruning, 

 can help it. 



We can help it in one of two ways : (i) a twofold 

 pinching with finger and thumb, the first in early summer, 

 the second in late summer ; (2) by cutting once only with 

 knife or secateurs at the end of summer. 



The late summer pruning with the knife is the general 

 method of summer pruning. It consists in shortening 

 all the side shoots to about six leaves each when the 

 summer growth is finished. This removes at once more 

 than half of the young wood in the tree, concentrates 

 the sap, and admits abundance of sun. It is a good 

 practice. It is simple. It can be done without a great 

 expenditure of time. Go into a good-class fruit nursery 

 in September and you may find a litter of young shoots 

 round the best trees, showing where the summer pruner 

 has been at work. The successful nurseryman has there- 

 fore found summer pruning with the knife late in summer 

 helpful to him. 



There is, however, the twofold system of pinching with 

 finger and thumb, the knife not being used. This is the 

 more scientific of the two. It is based on the theory that 

 it is better to prevent the tree from making strong wood 

 at the outset than to allow the shoots to grow and then to 

 reduce them. The ends of the shoots are nipped off while 

 they are still young and soft. This being done while the 

 growing year is yet young say about the end of May 

 it follows that the tree still has a great deal of potential 



