84 TREATISE ON 



or the lesser of the two strongest ones as in the middle of the tree, I minimize the last 

 pruning on the medium branch that's the best placed & best conditioned of those located 

 below the strongest ones. (I'm assuming that the branches pruned the previous year have 

 produced several new ones, something that rarely fails on a healthy & vigorous tree). I 

 prune this medium branch as a wood branch, whether it has any fruiting buds on it or not. 

 It will strengthen considerably as a result of cutting off the highest one or ones. 



4°. After providing my tree with the wood branches that are an absolute necessity, 

 I turn my attention to the fruiting branches that accomplish the really useful purpose for 

 cultivating fruit trees. Once again, beginning at the bottom, I save only the ones sufficient 

 to keep the tree filled out, selecting the strongest & best located ones & cutting off all 

 those that are too weak to be able to generate fine produce & to nourish it well. In 

 contrast, I save the one at the top of the tree as long as it can get by without creating 

 clutter, unless it had been exhausted by its productivity from the previous year. The 

 length that they're pruned, from three to eight inches, depends on the position of their 

 fruit buds. 



There are some who save only one medium branch to serve as a wood branch & a 

 fruiting branch, from all of the branches that grew from the last pruning. Others keep two, 

 the uppermost one for wood, the lowest one on the opposite side for fruit. Some retain 

 even more of them. There can't be a strict rule for this. It's determined by the extent of 

 the previous pruning, the strength of the tree, & its location. Saving two branches on a 

 pruning of three or four inches will create crowding & will overload a tree that such a 

 short pruning had assumed to be weak. A single branch left on a pruning of twelve to 

 fifteen inches won't fill out the tree sufficiently, 



