PERSIC A, PEACH TREE. 55 



& the other one left very long to obtain fruit. The best-situated branch is always the one 

 to prune short for wood branches. As to the fruiting branch, it won't spoil the tree at all, 

 because as of that moment it's destined to be cut off after a year or two. That's the surest 

 way to get lots of fruit and at the same time to perpetually renew the wood branches with 

 vigorous young branches. 



"With regard to twigs or stunted branches, you can't say much for them. The fruit 

 that they bear often falls off before it's ripe; or else it gets quite mealy & tastes bad 

 compared to fruit that grows on fairly strong branches. So those branches have to be cut 

 off unless one wants them there to moderate a tree that's too vigorous. However if better 

 branches are needed to fill in a gap, they can be pruned back to one bud. If the tree has 

 any vigor at all, a good branch often will emerge from them. Moreover, among these 

 twigs some are weaker than others & some of them are nearly as strong as good wood 

 branches. In that case, in the absence of others that are more vigorous, some of them can 

 be pruned for fruit. 



"When peach trees are mature, in their prime & in full productivity, they should 

 not continue to be filled out a lot as some gardeners do. If they were treated as though 

 they were young trees, they wouldn't last very long. They should be filled out only in 

 proportion to their strength, preserving their vigorous branches & those in a position to 

 fill in gaps. At this point those who know how to prune peach trees will follow different 

 procedures. 



"The one that I've adopted consists of cutting off suckers, unless they're needed to 

 fill in a gap, and to prune short the branches of average strength in order to generate new 

 branches 



