228 TREATMENT OF THE 



fruit which may be at its base ; and what is 

 not thus consumed, descends downward into 

 the tree, and the fruit being thus deprived 

 of another portion of its support, drops off, 

 and though in some rare cases a fruit may 

 survive when destitute -of a leading shoot 

 above it, yet it never arrives at a proper 

 state of maturity, and is always of a bad 

 flavour. After this first regulation of shoots 

 has been performed, let those which remain, 

 grow without any securing to the wall until 

 the second dressing. 



It sometimes occurs that soon after this 

 first hand dressing, the trees will be attacked 

 by the green fly and thrips. Very great at- 

 tention must be paid to destroy them as early 

 as possible, in order to preserve the shoots 

 and fruit from sustaining injury, which is 

 soon caused by the biting of the insects. 

 And if the shoots are seriously damaged by 

 them at this early stage of their growth, it 

 often spoils them so as to prevent them from 

 bearing fruit the following year, by causing 

 each to make several lateral shoots. (See re- 

 medies in the Chapter on destruction of insects.) 

 When the fruit has attained the size of large 

 marrow peas, it will be necessary to look 

 over the trees, and where there are two fruit 

 situated together, one of them must be taken 

 away, also any others that may be super- 

 fluous, taking care to leave half as many 



