222 LESSONS IN AGRICULTURE 



is headed back severely. This method is used especially 

 in pruning young peach trees. 



Second, the method of cutting away all of the branches 

 but one leader and three or four main side branches, 

 cut back to four or five buds, left to furnish the bases 

 of the lower spreading limbs. This method is used with 

 two-year-old apple trees in starting the first main 

 branches. 



It is best to leave the branches growing rather low 

 down on the trunk of the young tree in order to af- 

 ford shade for the trunk and ground beneath, and to 

 facilitate the spraying and the gathering of the fruit. 

 Fruit trees are not grown for lumber, but for fruit, 

 and peaches and apples will not grow on the trunks of 

 trees. 



Renewing old orchards. It is a fascinating pleasure 

 to buy and set out young trees, and to look forward 

 to the time when they will repay us for the long wait 

 and careful tending. But there is that long interim 

 between the planting and the harvesting which we must 

 expect. Perhaps while we are waiting for the young 

 trees, we are forgetting the old orchard that stands neg- 

 lected, though still trying to renew its life with the com- 

 ing of every season. Let us turn to these old trees 

 with the same skill and labor that we are bestowing on 

 our young trees, and they will repay a hundredfold, 

 yielding us an abundance of fine fruit before our young 

 trees have learned to blossom. 



The tops of the trees are old and high, and from 

 their unexplored and unsprayed heights, only a few 



