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very perplexing lot of laterals already started on the two- 

 year saplings. Beginners find it difficult to harden their 

 hearts sufficiently, to out all these close and leave a scarred 

 uneven-looking foot of stem. Some nurserymen pinch out 

 the apical bud at a bare eighteen-iuch height, and en- 

 courage three or four laterals which will make a ramping 

 growth of five feet or more in the first season. These are 

 cut back to nine inches in winter, and are delivered to 

 purchasers who thus get a yearling plant with a two year 

 old head on it. We cannot do better than quote the direc- 

 tions of a practical fruit grower who has in our very 

 midst shown the way to success. He says : 



" After shortening the side branches of the tree in its first year's 

 growth to the length required, by cutting back to a bud, inner or outer, 

 right or left, according to the shape required, a long growth of young 

 wood will be thrown out. An amount of a quarter to three-quarters 

 of this can be then cut away, according to the taste of the grower and 

 the distribution of the fruit buds. After this pruning in a peach tree, 

 one can expect a small crop, and during the cutting one should keep 

 an eye on the double or treble buds, that is, the fruit buds, in view 

 of inducing a crop. As the tree gets older the same course of cutting 

 back and thinning out should be pursued, with intent to produce a 

 quantity of new or bearing wood successionally each year, thus 

 enabling the pruner to distribute his coming crop over the whole tree. 

 Nor should he forget the leaving of such well-matured wood which 

 may be forced out from the main stem as shall tend to balance the 

 general set of the tree and equalise its bearing. The branches left in 

 this way should, of course, be cut back in due course, leaving only a 

 few more fruit-buds that are wanted for the following year. In fact, 

 on the peach no laterals should be left of their full length, and the 

 pruner must always look to the fruit-buds, and never forget he is 

 cutting the bearing wood. You will occasionally see your fruit-buds 

 near the points of the branches. Under these circumstances you must 

 leave them, and do more thinning out of branches. Some farmers 

 have asked me if I approve of summer pruning the peach tree while 

 in its fruiting stage. I say most emphatically no, because by doing 

 this you cause a double growth of new wood, entailing twice the 

 aniuunt of cutting." 



It is necessary to call attention to the difference between 

 the leaf- bud and the flower- bud, in the peach and other 

 stone fruits, as a guide to keeping the balance of wood and 

 fruit. The bearing shoots in the peach and nectarine 

 always show towards their base a number of acute solitary 

 buds with a brown scale-cover. These are leaf-buds. 

 Higher up will be seen a smaller number of buds standing 

 three together, a thin one in the middle, with a plump 



