Io6 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF PRUNING. 



plasters. Thick white lead paint is the best single material, 

 however. 



Pruning-saws are required for this work, which should 

 always be kept sharp and in good condition; those made with 

 coarse teeth on one edge, and slightly finer on the other, will 



FlG. 149. Two-edge Pruning Saw. 



be found most handy (Fig. 



149). 



For trimming branches not 

 over one inch in diameter on 

 the more inaccessible parts of 

 the trees, a powerful cutting- 

 shears on the end of a pole 

 has been devised, which is ex- 

 tremely useful (Figs. 150 and 

 151). 



Pruning the Peach. No tree requires 

 continued pruning so much as the peach. 

 There is a strong tendency in the ter- 

 minal buds to push upward and outward, 

 at the expense of the side-shoots, which 

 soon dying, the tree ultimately is com- 

 posed of long, bare poles with only tufts 

 of leaves at their extremities (Fig. 152). 

 It is well known that young trees bear 

 large, handsome, and excellent fruit, while 

 the old, enfeebled trees yield nothing but 

 small specimens of inferior quality. Con- 

 tinued pruning will prevent this bad re- 

 sult, and preserve the heads of old trees 

 in a state of thrifty growth, and they will 

 continue to yield as large and fine fruit as 

 in the first years of bearing. As the peach 

 always bears its fruit on the previous years' 

 growth, and buds never start from old wood, it is im- 

 portant to keep a continued supply of young wood, evenly 



FIG. 151. Water's 

 Tree-Pruner. 



