BRANCHES. 



11 



narrow, and prominent, and the first year or two after 

 their appearance, produce but rosettes of leaves, yielding 

 fruit generally about the third year. On trees well fur- 

 nished with fruit spurs, these slender branches are of 

 little account, but they are useful 

 on young trees not fully in a bear- 

 ing state. They are generally pro- 

 duced on the lower or older parts 

 of the branches or stem, and, in 

 the first place, are slender shoots 

 with wood buds only ; but owing to 

 their unfavorable position and fee- 

 ble structure, they receive only a 

 small portion of the ascending sap, 

 and the consequence is, they be- 

 come stunted, and transformed 

 into fruit branches. In pruning 

 young trees, slender shoots are fre- 

 quently bent over, or fastened in a 

 crooked position to transform them 

 into fruit branches of this kind; 

 but this will be treated of in its 

 proper pla'ce. 



Certain varieties of apples have 

 a natural habit of bearing the fruit 

 on the points of the lateral shoots ; 

 and frequently these terminal fruit 

 buds are formed during the first 

 season's growth of the shoot. Fig. 

 11 is an example ; A is the point 



where a fruit was borne last season; .2?, a shoot of last 

 season; and C its terminal bud, which is a fruit bud. 

 The fruit branches of the peach, apricot, and nectarine, 

 are productions of one season's growth ; the fruit buds 

 form one season and blossom the next' but as on the 



FIG. 10. 



FIG. 11 



Fig, 10, slender fruit branch 

 of the apple all the buds are 

 fruit buds. Fig. 11, a branch 

 of the apple showing the ten- 

 dency of some varieties to 

 bear on the points of the 

 branches. A, the point where 

 a fruit was borne last season ; 

 S, a shoot of last year ; C, its 

 terminal fruit bud. 



