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terminal buds and the yellow colour of the leaves. Pruning should 

 then be pushed forward rapidly, and the pruiiings removed before 

 the ground gets sodden with rain water. Deciduous trees, unlike 

 citrus trees, should not be touched in the active growing season, 

 except with the thumb nail, cherries and apricots, as seen below, 

 forming the exception to this general rule. 



Some varieties of apple, such as the Irish peach, and also 

 of pears, bear the best fruit at the extremities of their long, slender 

 and decumbent shoots. In such cases the small side shoots, which 

 measure a few inches in length, are not pinched back, as explained 

 farther on, but allowed to bear as they like best, and as many of 

 them as possible are left on the tree, only the longer shoots being 

 shortened. This method is pursued until the main growths of the 

 tree become very short or almost cease to move at all, when a certain 

 number of these fruit spurs are cut off, so as to induce new growth. 

 The rapid formation of numerous fruit spurs will stunt a tree ; when 

 this is the case they should be cut out at pruning time, otherwise 

 the trees will be short lived. On the other hand, with such varieties 

 as Ben Davis and Baldwin apples, which have a more compact form 

 and a better distribution of fruit, thinning the branches should be 

 practised after the bearing stage is reached. A wise rule to follow 

 consists in cutting out or back every year to get a healthy growth 

 of wood. 



According to the habit of growth of the tree it is pruned to an 

 inner bud, if it is intended to close it in, as in the case of the 

 Yellow Bell Flower, which would otherwise soon reach the ground, 

 like a weeping willow ; to an outer one, if it grows too straight up 

 after the manner of the Northern Spy or the Bartlett pear, which 

 grow like poplars. If it is intended to train a branch in the straight 

 line, it is pruned to an outer bud one year and to an inner bud the 

 next year. 



The branches of irregular-growing sorts, or of those exposed to 

 the influence of high winds, will require to be secured for some 

 time by stakes and soft-tying material. 



If we examine a young shoot of an apple or a pear tree of the 

 previous season's growth in the winter when the tree is in a 

 dormant stage, we find leaf buds all along 

 its length. When the sap begins running, 

 in the spring, the terminal buds produce 

 wood shoots, the others on the middle of 

 the twig called darts are either transformed 

 into fruit buds straight away, or produce 

 short side shoots which in subsequent 

 years carry fruit buds. The buds at the 

 base remain dormant unless excited into 

 life by the suppression of those above 

 them, so that by shortening a branch the 

 sap, which naturally has a tendency to 



small shoot in the middle of rush to the points, feeds these small 

 (branch called dart." dormant buds at the base, starts them 



