96 GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 



branches. The same branch was cut back the second 

 time to d, d, and on that section seven shoots were pro- 

 duced that were not needed in the form of the tree, and 

 were consequently pinched, and will become fruit branches. 

 At the points 5, and d, d, are small spurs, the base of shoots 

 that have been pinched close to favor the growth of the 

 leader, as well as the development of the shoots below. 

 TViithout pinAing it would have been impossible to obtain 

 such results in this branch in the same time. 



M. Dubreuil, formerly Professor of Arboriculture in the 

 Garden of Plants at Rouen, in France, sums up the general 

 principles of pruning as follows. (I may remark here, that 

 in 1849, I visited the Rouen garden, and found M. Du- 

 breuil's theory and practice beautifully illustrated on 

 the -trees in his charge. My visit was made at the time 

 of his practical lectures, and I was able to examine the 

 whole with the most satisfactory minuteness. The trees 

 there, under all forms, and embracing all the hardy spe- 

 cies of fruits, were the best that I anywhere found, not 

 even excepting the much admired and famous pyramidal 

 pear trees of M. Cappe, at Paris. They were not only per- 

 fect in form, but as regards vigor andfruitfulness, in the 

 most admirable condition.) He says : 



" The theory of the prunir-g of fruit trees rests on the follow- 

 ing six general principles : 



" 1 . The vigor of a tree, subjected to pruning, depends, in a greai 

 measure, on the equal distribution of sap in all its branches. 



" In fruit trees abandoned to themselves, the sap is equally dis- 

 tributed in the different parts without any other aid than nature, 

 because the tree assumes the form most in harmony with the 

 natural tendency of the sap.* 



* This is not in all cases true. Peach trees, we know, left to themselves, 

 exhibit a very striking example of the unequal distribution of the sap. The 

 ends of the branches attract nearly the whole, leaving the lateral sboots and 



