86 TREATISE ON 



& the other weak, if pruned to eight inches, the latter will be pruned "long" & the former 

 "short". With two trees, one vigorous & the other weak, both pruned to six inches, the 

 latter is pruned "long" & the strong one is pruned "short". Thus the strength or weakness 

 of the tree determines the meaning of the terms to prune long and to prune short just as it 

 determines the meanings of the terms strong branches and weak branches. So when 

 thinking of pruning relative to the strength of branches, we prune the lower part of the 

 tree short, & we prune the top quite long, since we give medium branches that we prune 

 at the top as much & usually more length than we give to strong branches that we prune 

 at the bottom. 



Thirdly, the lower part of the tree should be wider than the top, to avoid giving the 

 tree the shape of a semicircle, or, as the gardeners put it, making it into a peacock's tail. 

 We still fulfill this requirement because the lower part of the tree, pruned on branches 

 that had emerged at the ends of the last pruning, is necessarily more spread out than the 

 top where pruning has been minimized. 



Nota. 1°. On trees bearing stone fruit, especially peach trees, branches that have 

 borne fruit must be cut back to the lowest one that's emerged, provided that it's in good 

 condition. This renovated branch, the beneficiary of all of the sap that it would have 

 shared with the part that had been removed, will nourish its fruit much better than would 

 a branch exhausted by the production. 



Nota. 2°. Sometimes a tree gets carried away with such fervor that it's very 

 difficult to restrain it, to train it, & to make it bear fruit. If it's young, pruning it very 

 short to weaken its roots sometimes works; often it only serves to stimulate the activity of 

 the sap & to generate suckers & false wood branches. Not pruning it at all, or pruning it 

 very long & filling it out with small branches, is the customary procedure. 



