THINNING PEACHES 279 



"Prune the peach every year, cutting back and thinning out the center, 

 using great care not to cut out too many of the little fruit shoots of new 

 wood growing on the main branches, but removing the slender branches of 

 the old wood, leaving as many branches of the new growth as the tree will 

 support. In this case judgment must be used as to what the tree will 

 support. The soil may be wet or dry, rich or poor, the grower must be the 

 judge. To grow small fruit, prune lightly; to grow large fruit, prune with 

 care and judgment. To get this judgment you must have some practical 

 experience. I prefer doing the work when the sap begins moving in the 

 spring of the year. All cuts heal over better then and the pruner can see 

 how the buds are setting and use his own judgment as to how much wood 

 he wants to cut out." R. C. Kells, Yuba City, Sutler County. 



"Cutting back the peach must be more severe, as the growth of the new 

 wood diminishes. Not more than five or six fruit buds should be left on 

 a shoot, and if the fruit all sets, it must be also thinned. The trees should 

 be trained low and their vigor encouraged by permitting a reasonable amount 

 of young shoots to grow around the lower part of the main limbs. When 

 this method is continued systematically every season, the trees will bear 

 large crops of fruit, of good quality, for many years. When they are allowed 

 to overbear for one or two seasons, the fruit will decrease in size, and soon 

 become almost worthless; the trees will be enfeebled, and in consequence 

 very liable to be attacked by disease. The only thing to be done in this case 

 is to cut off the whole top of the tree, allowing it to form a new head. I have 

 seen old peach orchards thus renovated, and the results are often very flat- 

 tering, but it is far better not to allow them to get into a condition where this 

 desperate remedy is necessary." Leonard Coates, Morgan Hill. 



Cutting Back the Peach Is not Shearing. Some undertake the 

 annual pruning of the peach by a shearing process, treating a fruit 

 tree as one would a hedge cutting everything to a line. There 

 has been a good deal of this done in California, but it is wrong 

 nevertheless. Shortening in the new growth of the peach each 

 year is proper practice. It is the first step toward preventing over- 

 bearing of small, unmarketable fruit and saving the tree from 

 profitless and injurious effort. Thinning the shoots by removing 

 all but one when two or three start from the same point is also 

 working toward large fruit and regular bearing in the tree. This 

 shortening and thinning of the new wood must also be followed 

 by thinning of the young fruit just after the natural drop and it is 

 seen that the tree carries too many. Proper pruning can not be 

 done by shearing because it is apt to shorten the strong shoots 

 too much and the weak shoots too little. Each shoot must be 

 cut by itself according to its growth and its ability to carry more 

 or less fruit. Shearing, too, does not thin out the shoots but con- 

 tinually multiplies them until the tree is full of brush as a hedge. 



THINNING PEACHES * 



Thinning out fruit on the peach tree is not only the secret of 

 obtaining good, marketable fruit, but joins hands with pruning in 

 preserving the health and future production of the tree. The 

 importance of thinning has been urged in a previous chapter, but 

 the following is a very strong statement, by Mr. Culberston : 



