RATIONAL FRUIT CULTURE. 11 



food by the fruit, the loss is permanent. That one thin ring 

 will always show it. 



THE OBJECT OF PRUNING. 



The fact that, to ensure early flowering, the growth of 

 an excessively vigorous tree must be controlled may have sug- 

 gested to some the idea that this could be done by pruning. 

 A little consideration, however, will show that pruning — apart 

 from root-pruning, which is a different matter — really can do 

 nothing of the sort, for it leaves the cause untouched. If a 

 tree has, say, seven main branches, and we cut away two, 

 we do not lessen the amount of food materials supplied by 

 the roots. That amount remains exactly the same. Instead 

 of leaving it dispersed among the seven branches, we merely 

 concentrate it in five, with the result that they grow more 

 vigorously than ever. This is, indeed, the reason for pruning 

 most plants — for instance, Roses. The operation does not 

 reduce growth, but, if properly done, confines it to those parts 

 in which it will be most useful. 



FRUIT-SPURS RESULTING FROM PRUNING. 



There is one method of pruning which comes in rather a 

 different category. Most Apples and Pears flower and fruit 

 on spurs, and if the formation of spurs can be hastened, they 

 will be brought into bearing earlier than would otherwise have 

 been the case. Towards the end of summer, when growth 

 has almost ceased, the side-shoots are cut back to the fifth 

 bud. The last three buds — the third, fourth, and fifth from 

 the base — are left as safety-valves for the sap which is still 

 flowing, though only weakly, .and may force them to grow. 

 The other two buds close to the base will receive so little of 

 the sap that tljey will remain dormant, but will be plumped 

 up slightly. Instead of being thin and pointed like ordinary 



