182 THE PRINCIPLES OF PRUNING 



effect of the pruning is very largely taken up 

 before the return of spring, which is the season 

 of growth. Plants which are pruned in winter, 

 or any time during the dormant period, expend 

 their redundant energy at once in growth, upon 

 the return of the growing season. Aside from 

 all this, the removal of leaves during the sum- 

 mer reduces the working or elaborating surface, 

 and thereby tends more in the direction of 

 starving or weakening the plant than in feed- 

 ing or strengthening it. It is well known, for 

 example, that watersprouts are less frequent 

 following summer pruning than following win- 

 ter pruning. These remarks are necessarily very 

 general, and the condition of the plant and 

 amount of cutting may be expected to obscure 

 results which might be expected to transpire in 

 typical or selected cases. If the pruning is 

 such as to check wood growth without percep- 

 tibly weakening the plant, fruit -bearing is gen- 

 erally promoted ; and herein lies the value of 

 summer pinching of strong or leading shoots. 

 In respect to the proper time for pinching, 

 Sorauer remarks : * " The greatest success will 

 attend the process if the pinching takes place 

 just at the period when the buds have still 

 sufficient time to swell up and become stored 

 with food material, but when the supply of 

 water begins to diminish, so that the upper 



* Physiology of Plants," 138. 



