256 



PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF 1'Rl'MNG 



upon which the wood is generally more fully ripened. 

 Where late spring frosts are to be expected summer 

 pruning may thus be an advantage, since the blossoms 

 may appear after the danger has passed. 



201. The peach more quickly responds to pruning than 

 any other woody fruit-bearing plant, with the exception 

 of the grape. The pleasure that peach growers take in 

 pruning it accounts largely for the fact that peach or- 



FIG. 218 PEACH 



:K WITH VARYING DEGREES OF SEVERITY 



AFTER BEING INJURED BY A SEVERE WINTER 



chards generally look better and are better than orchard^ 

 of other tree fruits. Failures to have \vell-pruned peach 

 trees are most often due to want of nerve to cut. There 

 is less danger pf over-doing the pruning than with any 

 other fruit except the grape. This is because of its axil- 

 lary method of producing its fruit buds. 



Mature peach trees should make annual growths of 

 18 to 24 inches. It should, therefore, be the aim of the 

 orchardist to secure abundance of such growths by con- 

 sistent annual pruning as well as effective soil manage- 



