234 Pruning the Peach. 
season. In the peach, it will seldom be found necessary to remove any in- 
terior branches, except suckers, until they have produced a crop, when 
they will begin to decline and should be removed. 
“JT would certainly not cut peach trees back less than one-half of the new 
growth in the winter pruning, and our trees are getting too large for their 
age even with that amount of pruning. This has suggested, in other locali- 
ties, summer pruning or shortening in, with success in some places. So far 
my own experience is favorable. It will be noticed on trees kept growing 
rapidly that the fruit buds are near the ends of the shoots, and it seems to 
take away too many of these buds to cut back one-half in the winter prun- 
ing, but by cutting back about one-halfthe new growth in August, fruit buds 
are developed lower down, and where they would not be developed with- 
out the summer pruning.”’—H. Culbertson, El Cajon, San Diego County. 
“Prune the peach every year, cutting back and thinning out the center, 
using great care not to cut out too many of the little fruit shoots of new wood 
growing on the main branches, but removing the slender branches of the 
old wood, leaving as many branches of the new growth as the tree will sup- 
port. In this case judgment must be used as to what the tree will support. 
The soil may be wet or dry, rich or poor, the grower must be the judge. 
To grow small fruit, prune lightly; to grow large fruit, prune with care and 
judgment. To get this judgment you must have some practical experience. 
I prefer doing the work when the sap begins moving in the spring of the 
year. All cuts heal over better then and the pruner can see how the buds 
are setting and use his own judgment as to how much wood he wants to 
cut out.’—R. C. Kells, Yuba City, Sutter County. 
“Cutting back the peach must be more severe, as the growth of the new 
wood diminishes. Not more than five or six fruit buds should be left ona 
shoot, and if the fruit all sets, it must be also thinned. The trees should be 
trained low and their vigor encouraged by permitting a reasonable amount 
of young shoots to grow around the lower part of the main limbs. When 
this method is continued systematically every season, the trees will bear 
large crops of fruit, of good quality, for many years. When they are 
allowed to overbear for one or two seasons, the fruit will decrease in size, 
and soon become almost worthless; the trees will be enfeebled, and in con- 
sequence very liable to be attacked by disease. The only thing to be done 
in this case is to cut off the whole top of the tree, allowing it to form a new 
head. I have seen old peach orchards thus renovated, and the results 
are often very flattering, but it is far better not to allow them to get into a 
condition where this desperate remedy is necessary.’’—Leonard Coates, 
Napa. 
Cutting Back the Peach Is not Shearing.—Some undertake 
the annual pruning of the peach by a shearing process, treating 
a fruit tree as one would a hedge—cutting everything to a line. 
There has been a good deal of this done in California, but it 
is wrong nevertheless. Shortening in the new growth of the 
peach each year is proper practise. It is the first step toward 
preventing overbearing of small, unmarketable fruit and saving 
the tree from profitless and injurious effort. Thinning the 
shoots by removing all but one when two or three start from the 
same point is also working toward large fruit and regular bear- 
ing in the tree. This shortening and thinning of the new wood 
must also be followed by thinning of the young fruit just after 
the natural drop and it is seen that the tree carries too many. 
Proper pruning can not be done by shearing because it is apt to 
shorten the strong shoots too much and the weak shoots too 
