Pruning Mature Trees 133 



peach crop by a late frost offers an excellent opportunity 

 to grow a new top on the old peach tree. Figure 44 shows 

 a peach tree 11 years old, two years after the grower had 

 taken advantage of such an opportunity. The cutting- 

 back should be performed as soon as possible after the loss 

 of the crop can be ascertained. Severe pruning as late as 

 the first of June forces rank new growth that develops very 

 few fruit-buds. Rather large limbs may be cut if the bot- 

 tom of the tree has some smaller growth, but cutting to 

 bare stubs over two or three inches in diameter is hardly 

 advisable. 



Pruning the Pear 



The mature pear tree does not require much pruning, 

 nor does it allow lack of pruning to interfere seriously 

 with its proper behavior so far as fruit-bearing is con- 

 cerned. However, when the market demands that the 

 fancy pear be from 2^to 3J4 inches in diameter, the owner 

 of the old pear orchard is often reminded that the trees 

 need pruning. In general, the manner of fruit-bearing of 

 the pear is practically identical with that of the apple. 

 The spurs are a little shorter and give the tree rather 

 a more barren appearance, and, although some varieties 

 develop axillary fruit-buds quite freely, the majority of 

 the fruit-buds are terminal on these short spurs. The 

 different varieties vary somewhat in their fruiting-habits, 

 and a study of this character will indicate, to a certain 

 extent, how much pruning each will require. 



Apparently the grower accepts the upright-growing 

 habit of the pear as inevitable, with hardly so much as an 

 effort to train it otherwise. With proper training there is 

 no reason why the pear tree may not be grown with a mod- 



