PERSICA. PEACH TREE. 57 



Suckers that would greatly weaken these old trees must also be removed. Only the good 

 branches must be kept & they're pruned quite short. But some forethought is appropriate 

 here. If only one branch is seen that won't last long, one should try to find a vigorous 

 branch and to prepare it by pruning to subsequently fill the space left by the weak branch 

 when it has to be removed. With such foresight I've witnessed a big branch cut off & its 

 place filled right away by branches that have been prepared in advance." 



Nota. This method, the one that follows, & the one laid out in the section on 

 general cultivation have no use for suckers & false wood branches. There are certain 

 exceptions that are very infrequently practiced by the majority of gardeners, but I believe 

 they ought to be much more so. 



The vigor & the origin of a branch generally are enough to identify it as a sucker 

 & to have it rejected as such without further examination. But several causes can give rise 

 to such a vigorous branch, whether it's a sucker or not: pruning too hard or thinning out 

 too much; a branch that's bent or trained almost horizontally; a cut made too obliquely 

 that opened up the last bud so that it died or only produced a weak shoot. Gardeners often 

 make this mistake when they begin their cut below the bud stem above which they're 

 pruning. In these last two cases, do these vigorous branches have to be cut off? Isn't it 

 better keep them, prune them, & cut them back hard above the last pruning, if what 

 they've produced beyond that point is weak & in poor condition? In the first case, 

 removing them & continuing to prune hard will compound the injury. The tree must be 

 trimmed less, pruned longer, the suckers preserved 



