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still young and being shaped, all the pruning should be done in the 
winter. If the season is dry a good watering should be given to 
the trees after the summer pruning. 
The management of the fruit branches is much the same as in 
the case of the cherry; unless the shoot is cut back, the basal bud 
will remain dormant, as shown in the following illustration of an 
unpruned branch, and the terminal shoot will grow, lengthening 
the branch which, long and lanky, will ultimately bend, and, unless 
propped up, break down under the load of fruit. It is, therefore, 
advisable to cut the young shoot at A (fig. 1). The sap will thus 
be foreed towards the base, and produce new fruit branches (A, 
fig. 2). The primitive branch B is cut at a, and the new fruit branch 
A at b, in order to obtain the same result. In the last figure the 
small branch is cut at A so as to force a new fruit branch from the 
base. 
PRUNING THE CHERRY. 
The instructions given about the shaping of young trees apply 
to the cherry. The stem should be low and headed back to 12 to 
15 inches when planting; tlie main limbs are also cut short, as the 
tree is very subject to sunburn. To guard against this it is a good 
practice to pinch all side shoots not necessary for the extension of 
the tree to a pair of leaves or two; fruit spurs will thus, in time, be 
formed all along the lower branches, while these tufts of leaves will 
afford to the branches protection against the sun. 
Cherry trees in general produce their fruit upon small spurs, 
or studs, from half-an-inch to two inches in length, which proceed 
from two, three, or four year old wood. New spurs will continue 
to shoot out right up to the extremities of the branches; in the cen- 
tre of every cluster of fruit spurs there is a wood spur, which, 
as it extends each season, bursts into blossom and carries the year’s 
crop; this should be remembered when pruning. These spurs will 
carry fruit for several years. 
Once the cherry tree has commenced to fruit it should, unlike 
the peach and the apricot, be very sparingly touched with the 
knife, as it is besides very subject to “gumming.” This peculiarity 
of the plant is aggravated in individuals presenting long stems 
exposed to the sun, on trees with many forked limbs, and on those 
which have had large limbs taken off. It is found that by domg 
all the necessary severe cutting during the summer, and after the 
crop has been gathered, the wounds heal more readily. Whenever 
a branch thicker than the size of the finger is cut off it is advisable 
to apply to the fresh eut a covering of white lead, gum shellac 
varnish, of hot wax or of clay. 
When big limbs have to be removed it is safer to do so in the 
summer, when it is less likely to gum. 
