8 THE PHILOSOPHY OP PRITNIN& 



the little tree had produced a total of thirty -nine 

 buds, one branchlet, and twenty -seven inches of 

 growth. The second year, 1892, nineteen of these 

 thirty -nine buds produced branches and twenty- 

 did not start. These nineteen branches made a 

 total growth of 231 inches, and produced 370 

 buds. The terminal branch or shoot grew thirty- 

 six inches long. Here, then, is a little tree two 

 years old and four and one -half feet high which 

 has made an effort to bear 409 branches. It is 

 plain that more than ninety per cent of these 

 efforts must be futile. Many of the buds will 

 not start, but the tree now has a total of twenty- 

 seven branches and subdivisions as a result of 

 its first year's growth; if it makes a proportional 

 number this year from the growth of 1892, it will 

 bear 216 branches at the close of 1893 and will 

 have made a total effort of about 3,500 branch - 

 germs or buds. This little tree will undergo a 

 severe pruning in the coming years, although a 

 knife does not touch it.* 



But the natural thinning of the top will con- 

 tinue in geometrical ratio as long as the tree 

 grows; and after a time this pruning will become 

 more severe, for larger branches will be sacrificed. 

 Probably less than a fifth of the buds upon any 

 tree ever make branches, and less than a fifth of 

 the branches persist. The greater part of these 



*The subsequent history of this cherry tree, and record of its tragic 

 death, may be found in "The Survival of the Unlike," pp. 88, 89. 



