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sequence not very long-lived, especially the first two, whose period 

 of useful existence extends to 10 to 15 years, unless their strength 

 and exuberant vitality are checked and controlled by judicious 

 pruning and thinning out of the superabundant fruit crop. 



At the time of planting, if a yearling tree, cut them back to a 

 straight stem about 18 inches high, and prune to side branches, on 

 which are left one single bud at the base. 



From their habit of growth, the peach and nectarine require 

 constant and yearly primings, the method adopted in these instances 

 being that of shortening in. 



A standard stone-fruit tree is trained in precisely the same 

 manner as described above, with a low head, which affords shade 

 to the roots and the trunk and limbs, and facilitates pruning, 

 spraying, gathering, etc. 



A clear understanding of the constitution of the bearing shoots 

 of these trees will throw light on the best method of pruning them. 



On account of the larger size of the circulating channels in 

 these trees, the sap tends to rush towards the extremities of the 

 shoots much quicker than in other trees, and the buds that do not 

 push and form shoots the first season are unless the branch which 

 carries them is cut back lost, as, unlike most other fruit trees, they 

 are not excited into growth, by cutting back in subsequent seasons. 

 This explains how it is that trees that have been neglected or wrongly 

 pruned in their youth present long limbs denuded of young wood 

 and bark, and look like skeleton trees, which soon perish after 

 over-bearing themselves. 



In the peach, nectarine, and apricot the fruit branches are 

 productions of the season's growth, the fruit buds forming one 



season and blossoming the next. In 

 the first two more especially, the fruit 

 is borne on wood of the previous 

 season's growth, and any limb, or part 

 of a limb, destitute of such wood is 

 sterile, so that the great object of the 

 grower is to so prune the tree by 

 cutting hard back a proportion of 

 the lateral twigs that it is always 

 A peach tree without pruning, as covered with a regular and constant 



commonly seen DOWNING. . /, i i i 



succession ot annual bearing shoots. 



As in the case of all stone-fruit trees, wood that has borne 

 fruit will bear no more. 



The young shoot (one or two feet long) of the peach and the 

 nectarine is furnished with a certain amount of wood buds and of 

 fruit buds. There are one or more wood buds at the terminal 

 points, fruit buds in the middle, and two or three wood buds at the 

 base. If the branches are left untouched the fruit buds blossom 

 and produce fruit, and the terminal shoots, which should carry the 

 next season's crop, grow thin and weak, as the fruit below have 



