126 FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



"To weaken the buds individually, the pruning- 

 shears will be plied but sparingly, leaving the buds 

 almost intact ; then these, being many in number, will 

 have so much the less for each one separately, and 

 some of them, especially toward the lower part of the 

 branch, will find themselves too feeble to contend 

 with the others and therefore will take the form of 

 flower-buds, whereas they would have produced 

 branches and not flowers if a more thorough pruning 

 had rid them of their rivals. 



"To weaken the tree as a whole, all that we have 

 to do is to pinch off or cut off with the thumb-nail 

 the tender tips of the young branches ; then we bend 

 these branches back so as to give them a number of 

 crooks and turns that will impede the circulation of 

 the sap. Finally, the woody branches of the pre- 

 ceding year are broken by the hand, sometimes 

 wholly, sometimes half, so that the tip is left hang- 

 ing down. If the tree is not too vigorous these three 

 methods, pinching, bending, and breaking, are gen- 

 erally sufficient to make it bear. 



"But when we have to do with very exuberant 

 vegetation, more energetic methods are necessary. 

 One of these we may call arching. The branches are 

 all bent down so that each forms an arch ; that is, the 

 tip-end of each is pulled down to the ground and 

 fastened there in any way that may be easiest. This 

 abnormal position of the branch, with its top down- 

 ward, is contrary to the ascending movement of the 

 sap, which consequently flows less freely to the buds. 

 The resulting dearth is conducive to fruit-bearing, 



