THE BEAR-QUICK APPLE 311 



leaf and stem left in it, which it will try to find an outlet 

 for. Debarred from extension at the tip it will begin to 

 grow from the young buds on the piece of wood pinched. 

 New shoots will show there, and extend steadily. In 

 about six weeks from the first pinching they will have 

 developed a full-sized leaf. Then comes the second 

 pinching, which removes the tips of the secondary shoots 

 in precisely the same way that it had done the primary 

 ones. It is now too late in the growing year for the tree 

 to break again. 



The twofold pinching system is a more detailed process 

 than the single cutting. It takes more time. It requires 

 more learning. It is probably for these reasons that it is 

 not generally practised. By it fruit buds can be developed 

 as it were artificially. The tree is forced to form them. 

 And remember, fruit buds are fruit buds, whether the 

 tree forms them by its own somewhat slow process or in 

 a shorter time under the stimulus of the grower. With 

 an annual twofold pinching the tree is made to form 

 fruit buds every year, and with fruit buds there will be 

 fruit, unless frost, insects or fungi intervene. As to these 

 causes of failure more later. 



The plant physiologist who has learned that the foliage 

 of a plant, shrub or tree plays an important part in its 

 well-being, serving the part of lungs, stomach and skin, 

 may wonder whether the repression of stem growth 

 which is entailed by summer pinching and pruning 

 (particularly by the former) will not have a bad effect on 

 the general health of the tree ; and whether, thus by 

 unnatural means robbed of part of its foliage and at the 

 same time forced to bear a larger quantity of fruit, it will 

 not be crippled. 



The question is a perfectly legitimate one and deserves 

 careful consideration. If we set out on a particular 



