18 FIOTOBIAL PBAGTICAL FRUIT GliOWlNO. 



there is room, and the side breaks from them summer pruned to encourage 

 the formation of spurs ; (2) stubby growths, 4 to 6 inches long, which m.ay 

 be left intact for the lower part to plump up fruit buds ; and (3) true spurs, 

 i.e. stumps of growth each containing fruit and wood buds. Apricots are 

 usually grown on walls, and practically all the knife work that is called for 

 on established trees is the removal of "foreright" shoots, which, extending 

 from buds on the front of the branches, stick out at right angles to the wall 

 and get in the way. (For summer pruning see Fig. 9, page 17.) 



Cherries. — Every Kentish Cherry grower will tell you that the Cherry 

 does not like the knife. In the large orchards of the eastern portion of the 

 Hop county the Cherries are rarely, if ever, pruned ; and it is generally 

 considered wise to shape the heads when the trees are young, and then 

 leave them alone. The common result of the free " knifing " of Cherries is 

 an exudation of gum. I h.ave known old trees pruned in winter, and gum 

 begin to exude the day after cutting. In garden culture a certain amount 

 of pruning is necessary to keep trees in shape and within bounds, and 

 Cherries may have to come under the knife. As far as possible the work 

 should be done in summer, because when the trees are full of sap there is 

 much less liability to gumming than when the sap is down during the 

 winter season. It may be asked, Can the requisite pruning be done in 

 summer 7 In the main, yes ; and if the small amount of later pruning that 

 may be necessary is done in October, before all the sap has left the trees, 

 there is not likely to be much trouble from gumming. 



Fruiting spurs will form on the wood of Cherries much more quickly than 

 on that of Pears. Thus they may often be found on the older part of an 

 extension branch, such as i? in Fig. 10 (see page 19) ; and they may be 

 induced to form still more freely on such a branch by stopping shoots such 

 as g to five or six leaves in summer, and shortening them to two or three 

 buds in October. Spurs are shown at further stages of development in C 

 and S. Single fruit buds often form on one year old wood as shown in A. 

 When a tree has become well furnished with fruiting spurs as a result of 

 careful treatment, winter, or rather autumn, pruning is likely to do more 

 harm than good, and had better be left alone. The trees will bear well if 

 tlie branches are thinly disposed. 



If young Cherries form very coarse shoots and no fruit buds, lift them 

 and replant them. It will check the exuberance. 



If it were not that tidiness has to be considered, I should be disposed to 

 say. Never cut Morellos after once the framework of the tree has been 

 secured by early shortening. The more breastwood they are allowed to 

 make the more fruit they bear. Such half-wild trees are wonderfully 

 beautiful, too, when in full bloom, but they look woefully bad when leafless. 

 Careful cultivators who are fond of neatness will lay young shoots in from 

 i to 6 inches apart between the main branches like Peach shoots, and there 

 secure them with shreds and nails. 



Fears are comparatively easy to prune, for they do not present the 

 great variations which have been noted as occurring in Apples. The 

 twelve-cordons-on-a-tree type — i.e. specimens with a limited number of 

 branches trained well apart, the breastwood pruned to six leaves in August, 

 and spurred to a couple of eyes in winter, or before growth starts in spring 

 —is the most healthy and productive. 



IV.£.—ln pruning Pears— and, indeed, all classes of fruit— avoid leaving 

 stumps or " snags." A " snag " is the portion of shoot, ranging in length 

 from i inch to 2 inches, which many pruners leave on each piece of growth 



