FRUIT TREES. Chap. IV. 97 



and branches afflicted by gummosis, canker, or other diseases, must be re-pruned below 

 the affected part. 



The benefits of pinching off are easy to see. The fruit & the remaining shoots 

 alone enjoy the benefit of all of the sap that they share among themselves, perhaps even 

 to their advantage, from the surplus fruit & needless or harmful branches. 



Protected from etiolation, the air & sunshine bring them to fulfillment & give 

 them their desired quality. A tree cleared of its disarray will see its productivity increase 

 & will be enhanced and strengthened. Its small wounds heal easily & promptly without 

 fear of any serious consequences. It prepares, facilitates, and simplifies all subsequent 

 operations, even winter pruning. Nevertheless, pinching off, almost as indispensable as 

 pruning, requires nearly as much good judgment, intelligence, & knowledge. Woe to a 

 tree in the hands of a mindless gardener! It will meet much the same fate as it would have 

 in the hands of the Scythian philosopher in the fable*. 



Articlk VIII.. On the Second Training. 



WHEN branches preserved at the time of pinching off have grown sufficiently 

 long so that there's a concern that they might be broken by the wind or become 

 misshapen (they'd be in that condition earlier or later in June depending on how far along 

 the season has advanced), they have to be extended, separated, oriented, and fastened 

 with loquettes [Translator's note: see p. 0100] or small marsh reeds, & not with wicker 

 that could bruise & damage them. 



But this training, requiring the same care for the orientation & arrangement of the 

 branches as described for the training that follows pruning, should be preceded by further 

 inspection of the tree's condition. 



^Translator's note: In the fable by Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695), a philosopher from ancient Scythia 

 visits Greece. He meets a wise gardener who introduces him to the value of careful pruning, but upon his 

 return to Scythia he indiscriminately hacks his own trees to pieces and destroys them all. The storyteller 

 uses this example to caution against the Stoic philosophers who would at once do away with feelings and 

 emotions, the good along with the bad, and thus "make us cease to live before we die". 



