PRUNING. 241 



wood, there may be a few promising shoots thickly 

 beset with flower buds : these, however, would not 

 be preserved for their fruit, but cut down to produce a 

 greater number of young shoots for the service of the 

 next and following years. There is no depending on 

 old branches of peach and nectarine trees for the pro- 

 duction of young shoots, though this does occasion- 

 ally happen ; the lowest placed young wood of the 

 above trees is therefore preserved in order that there 

 may be a constant succession from the bottom. It 

 has been stated that the vital envelope contains the 

 principles of buds as well as of roots, and as some 

 trained trees, particularly peaches and nectarines, are 

 liable to lose their lower branches, it is always desir- 

 able to bring forth young shoots from the naked parts 

 of the stem or branches. This may sometimes be 

 accomplished by art, though the trees here mentioned 

 are the least tractable of any for obtaining such result. 

 The manoeuvre is to cut a notch through the bark, 

 immediately above the place where a shoot is wanted, 

 and removing carefully any dead scabrous bark from 

 the lower side, latent buds may be prompted into 

 action. May is the best month for performing this 

 on stone-fruit trees, and at the time of pruning for 

 others. But the same object is more certainly ob- 

 tained by the insertion of buds, or grafts, at the usual 

 seasons. 



Here we may observe, that besides a proper thin- 

 ning of shoots, thinning flowers is sometimes expe- 

 dient. Taking off redundant fruit is an every-day 



