94 TREATISE ON 



Fruit that has set, stopped growing, and that has avoided the worst dangers, deserves 

 special attention. 



1°. If most of the buds on a wood branch have opened & it has a lot of shoots, the 

 only shoot to be saved is the one coming out at the tip, & two others near the lower part 

 of the pruned branch, that are in good condition & well situated on opposite sides from 

 one another. The rest are pinched off. 



2°. If a fruiting branch has kept its fruit & has produced no shoots, or if it hasn't 

 set any fruit but has produced shoots, or if it has both fruit & shoots, in the first two 

 cases, it's cut back to the second bud, or to the second shoot. 



In the third case, the fruit may set at the top, the bottom, in the middle, or along 

 the whole length of the branch, either a few or a lot of them. To begin with, if the branch 

 has set only three or four fruits, keep them all. If it's set a lot more, they're reduced to a 

 number that's appropriate for the strength of tree, for its species, or for the variety of the 

 fruit. Four peaches, pears, apples, or apricots of the large kind are sufficient. A fruiting 

 branch can nourish a larger number of early peaches, small muscatel pears, plums, lady 

 apples, I lolland apricots, &c. A vigorous tree should bear more fruit than a weak, old, 

 declining one. Be careful here to resist being tempted by excess. When two fruits of very 

 short-stemmed species are fixed on the same bud, since they both can't achieve 

 perfection, one must be sacrificed in favor of the other, the lesser one for the finer, 

 detaching the former without loosening the latter. Twin fruits are cut off. Fruit that's set 

 near the origin of the branch are retained in preference to those set near the tip. Once a 

 suitable number of the finest of the fruit, 



