242 



PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE ():' PRUNING 



cause this pruning helps to thin the fruit ( 106). Such a 

 method applied totrees which produce terminal fruit buds, 

 wholly or largely, would probably not only destroy to.) 

 many fruit buds, but also upset the normal habit of 

 growth and cause the development of wood, even to the 

 extent of destroying the bearing habit altogether. Kven 

 with trees that produce axillary buds, good judgment is 

 needed, for the bearing habit may differ among varieties 

 as well as species. For instance, the peach bears its fruit 

 buds on strong annual growths of last year; whereas the 



cherry blooms on less vigorous 

 twigs. Therefore the severe 

 pruning considered ideal for 

 the peach would in the cherry 

 develop many and large twi^ 

 which would bear little fruit. 

 Apples and pears, which form 

 axillary fruit buds and also 

 terminal ones on young fruit 

 spurs, must be pruned more 

 severely than those which bear 

 in the more normal way, be- 

 cause they are prone to over- 

 bear. To sum this matter up, 

 then, the primer may decide 



FIG. 202 

 UNPARDONABLE "PRUNING" 



This style of cutting courts dis- 

 aster because it favors the en- 

 trance of decay. The wound 

 should be close to the trunk as llOW milch he Shall prime each 



tree by noting the way in 

 which it forms the majority of its fruit buds. 



193. Pruning the apple. Tn a general way the follow- 

 ing rules, based on the principles already discussed 

 (Chapter V), will aid the pruner in developing his judg- 

 ment of how to prune bearing trees, not only of apples 

 but of other fruits : 



1. Study the habit of growth as well as the method of 

 fruit bud formation. Trees which normally grow erect 

 may be spread somewhat by cutting to outside buds: 



