MAKING FRUIT TREES BEAR 127 



and as soon as this effect is assured the branches 

 are allowed to return to their natural position; 

 otherwise the tree would become exhausted. 



"Another method is as follows. Pruning is done 

 very late, when the young shoots are already some 

 centimeters long. The sap used up in the growth of 

 the shoots cut off by the pruning shears is a great 

 loss to the tree, which, being no longer able to supply 

 ample nourishment to the lower buds of the branches, 

 turns them into flower-buds. 



"If these means do not suffice to make the tree 

 bear fruit, there are more violent ones which are 

 employed only in the last extremity. Toward the 

 end of winter, before the sap has started, an incision 

 some millimeters wide and deep enough to penetrate 

 the outer layers of wood is made all around the 

 base of the trunk. Sap, as we know, ascends 

 through these exterior layers, the newest, the most 

 permeable by liquids; so if we partially intercept 

 its passage it will flow less abundantly to the buds 

 and the weakened tree will soon begin to bear. 



' ' Still another expedient is to strike at the very 

 source of the sap, the roots. The foot of the tree 

 is laid bare in the springtime, its main roots being 

 denuded of their covering and left thus exposed all 

 summer to the open air and the hot sun. No longer 

 enjoying the coolness and darkness necessary to 

 their office, they furnish less nourishment to the tree, 

 and this scarcity causes the formation of flower- 

 buds. A still more drastic method, but one that 

 would kill the tree if employed imprudently, is to 



