12 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 



Fig. 12, fruit spur of the 

 peach on the old wood. 



apple and pear, there 

 are different forms 

 of the fruit branch. 



In the first place 

 the fruit spur (A, 

 fig. 12), a group of 

 buds like a bouquet ; 

 these are little stunt- 

 ed branches on the 

 older wood that have 

 assumed this form. 

 The most important 



fruit branches of these trees are the vigorous 

 shoots of the last season's growth, containing 

 both fruit and wood buds (fig. 13), and the 

 slender fruit branches, bearing all single 

 fruit buds, except a wood bud or two at the 

 base. Fig. 14 represents such a branch of 

 the peach, A and B being wood buds. The 

 fruit branches of the plum and cherry, and 

 the gooseberry and currant, are similarly pro- 

 duced. A yearling shoot, for instance, the 

 second season, will produce a shoot from its 

 terminal bud, and probably shoots from two or 

 three other buds immediately below the ter- 

 minal, whilst those lower down will be trans- 

 formed into fruit buds, and produce fruit 

 the third season. Fig. 15 is a branch of the 

 cherry. A is the two-year-old wood; J?, 

 one year ; C and D, fruit spurs on the two- 

 year-old wood, with a wood bud usually at 

 the point. Fig. 16 is a fruit spur from the 

 ->lder wood; A, the wood bud at its point. 



Fio. 13 



Fig. 13, mixef -food and fruit branches of me peach ; C. D, E, fruit buds ; F, O 

 H, leaf buds ; J yiuble buds ; C, triple buds, the two side buds being fruit buff* 

 will the centre o<r a leaf bud. 



