214 THE PEACH AND NECTABINE. 



the first stopping or pinching. This may be done for a Variety of 

 reasons, such as to plump up the base buds of the stopped shoot, or to 

 make it break into other shoots, as in Figs. 50 and 51. It is also often 

 done when the shoot reaches up towards another in the same direction, 

 so as to prevent the head of one shoot from overshadowing the base or 

 principal fruiting pact ahead of it. 



With trees in robust health, in rich soU, and during what is called 

 growing weather, the buds on the extremities of Fig. 49 frequently break 

 again almost at once, as shown in Fig. 50. In such cases the base buds 

 are not sufiaciently filled, and a second pinching may be needed, as shown 

 in Fig. 50. It is seldom that more than two pinchings are desirable for 

 peaches in the open air in our climate. 



Cases, however, not seldom occur when, by the loss of considerable 



Fib. so. Pio. 51. 



branches or secondary leading shoots, large blanks occur io peach and 

 nectarine trees. There are no surer nor quicker methods of filling up these 

 than by the early stopping or pinching back of strong shoots, and then 

 forcing them to break into three or four shoots, as in Fig. 51. These 

 shoots are not stopped again, and by the end of the season furnish a 

 welcome supply of weU ripened wood to make good accidental breaches 

 in the trees. Summer pinching may thus save a season and promptly 

 restore the health or symmetry of trees crippled by disease or disfigured 

 by accident. To insure these results it is, however, needful that the 

 pinching back should be done early, say, towards the end of May or early 

 in June. It too late, the result will be a crop of unripened green wood, 

 about the surest possible. legacy of weakness and disease to trees of any 

 sort, and peaches and nectarines in particular. 



After July the summer pruning consists chiefly in the removal of late 

 shoots that spring forth from the current year's wood and the stopping' 



