PRUNING AND TRAINING. 233 



fruit buds. If we wish a branch to bear fruit, we can 

 obstruct the circulation of the sap by bending or making 

 incisions around the branch, or if it is wished to change 

 a fruit into a wood-branch, raise it into a vertical posi- 

 tion and prune it to two or three buds, on which we con- 

 centrate the action of the sap and induce them to grow 

 vigorously. 



Y. — The leaves .scree to prepare the sap absorbed by the roots 

 for the nourishment of the tree, and aid in the formation of 

 buds on the shoots. All trees, therefore, deprived of their 

 leaves, are liable to perish. Hence, the leaves should 

 never be removed from a tree under the pretext of aiding 

 the growth, or ripening the fruit, as, deprived of leaves, 

 trees cannot grow, neither can their fruit mature. 



VI. — When the hints of an// shoot or branch do not develop 

 before the age of tiro years they can be forced into activity out// 

 by a very close pruning, and in some cases, as the peach, even 

 this will fait. ITence, the main branches should be trim- 

 med so as to secure a development of their successive sec- 

 tions, and so shortened in as not to allow the production 

 of long, naked stems, leaving the interior of the tree bare 

 of shoots, and consequently unproductive. 



In order to induce trees to grow in any particular form, 

 it is not so much labor as continued attention that is 

 required. A thorough pruning once a year will not pro- 

 duce the desired effect, but a little attention two or three 

 times a week during the growing season will be sufficient 

 to examine every shoot in an acre of garden trees, and the 

 eye is very soon trained so as to detect at a glance the 

 shoots that require attention. (Du Breuil, Lindley, 

 Barry, etc.) 



Training. — The principal objects of training are to 

 render plants more productive of fruits and flowers than 

 if left to grow voluntarily, also to form screens of various 

 running plants to keep any unsightly object from view. 



