140 



destined to be cut off in the winter, is saved, and the energy and 

 the.vitality of the plant thrown into more useful channels. * This 

 practice leads to the enunciation of the fact that severe winter 



pruning induces wood 

 growth, while summer 

 pruning tends to fruit 

 production. Thus, if a 

 tree is stunted, and for 

 some obscure reason does 

 not make much wood, but 

 shows a tendency to pro- 

 duce more fruit buds than 

 it can safely carry, prune 

 close in the winter ; if, on 

 the other hand, a tree 

 grows so quickly that all 

 its energy is wasted in 

 wood and leaves, and does 

 not pause to produce fruit, 

 either summer pruning or 

 root pruning will throw it 

 into bearing. By such 

 means the plant, realising, 

 while in full flow of sap, 

 that its constitution has 

 been attacked and its life 

 menaced, will make an 

 effort to reproduce its kind 

 forthwith, and the result 

 will be the evolution of 

 leaf buds into fruit- bearing 

 spurs. Subsequent prun- 

 ings consist mostly in rub- 

 bing off water shoots, in 

 suppressing branches that cross and rub against one another, and 

 trimming the twigs and the fresh growth made during the season's 

 growth. At this stage the tree will have ceased making much 

 wood, and will begin the business of setting and carrying fruit. 



SEDUCTION OF SWELLINGS AND HIDE-BOUND TREES. 



At the time of pruning swellings are occasionally noticed 011 

 the stems or limbs of trees. These swellings are either due to the 

 disproportionate growth of the scion or fruiting part, compared with 

 the stock or root end of the tree. 



They may also be due to strings used in previous seasons as 

 ties, which have cut through the bark. These swellings, which 

 interfere with the free circulation of the sap, must be reduced. This 

 is best done by running longitudinal incisions from C downwards 

 to the stock B. The bark will thus expand, and should the 

 deformity continue the next season, these incisions should be 

 renewed. 



Young standard tree, four years from the bud, 

 after pruning. Btirri/. 



