CHAPTER II. 



PRUNING APPLIED TO THE DIFFERENT SPECIES OP 

 FRUIT TREES UNDER DIFFERENT FORMS. 



SECTION 1. PKUNING THE APPLE AND THE PEAK. 



THESE two trees belong to the same natural order, po- 

 macem, and to the same genus pyrus ; their habits of 

 growth and bearing are similar, and they may therefore 

 be treated as regards their pruning, under the same 

 head. 



If we take for example a shoot of last season (fig. 6), we 

 find it in the spring, before vegetation commences, fur- 

 nished on all its length with wood buds ; when growth 

 commences, the terminal bud, and probably two or three 

 of the others nearest to it, produce shoots, the others to- 

 wards the middle produce small shoots that are in subse- 

 quent years transformed into fruit branches (like fig. 10). 

 Some do not push at all, but are converted into fruit 

 buds (as in figs. 1 and 8), whilst those at the base gene- 

 rally remain dormant, until excited into growth by close 

 pruning. All the buds on these trees have small incon- 

 spicuous buds at their base, which are capable of produc- 

 ing shoots when the principal bud is destroyed or injured, 

 and these buds render the fruit spurs so enduring. In 

 young trees the fruit buds are many years in process of 

 formation, and in bearing trees three to four years, accord- 



