OF PRUNING. 243 



or the ensuing season, thougli I have seen that their 

 buds obviously contained blossoms. I made several 

 experiments to obtain fruit in the following spring 

 from other parts of such branches, which were not 

 successful; but I ultimately found that bending 

 these branches, as far as could be done without danger 

 of breaking them, rendered them extremely fruitful ; 

 and, in the present spring, thirteen figs ripened per- 

 fectly upon a branch of this kind within the space 

 of ten inches. In training, the ends of all the shoots 

 have been made, so far as practicable, to point down- 

 wards." (Hort. Trans., iv. 201.) 



The effect produced upon one part by the abstrac- 

 tion of some other part, thus shown in the develope- 

 ment of buds which would otherwise be dormant, is 

 seen in many other ways. If all the fruit of a plant 

 is abstracted one year when just forming, the fruit 

 will be finer and more abundant the succeeding year, 

 as happens when late frosts destroy our crops. If of 

 many flowers one only is left, that one, fed by the 

 eap intended for the others, becomes so much finer. 

 If the late figs, which never ripen, are abstracted, the 

 early figs the next year are more numerous and 

 larger. If of two unequal branches, the stronger 

 is shortened and stopped in its growth, the other 

 becomes stronger ; and this is one of the most useful 

 facts connected with pruning, because it enables a 

 skilful cultivator to equalise the rate of growth of all 

 parts of a tree ; and as has been already stated, this is 

 of the greatest consequence in the operation of bud- 

 ding. In fact^ the utility of the practice, so common 



