1 54 Practical Orcharding On Rough Lands. 



the oats. It might be done by reducing the 

 leaf surface by summer pruning, and thereby 

 lessening the tree's capacity for preparing plant 

 food. Whichever plan may be resorted to, it 

 should be kept clearly in mind that in order to 

 succeed in fruit production, wood growth must 

 cease early, so that the leaves will have time 

 to not only elaborate plant food enough to form 

 the flower and leaf buds, but they should have 

 a chance to store up' enough plant food in root, 

 trunk, bough and bud to enable the tree to 

 make a good strong start in the spring. 



No growth can come from the plant food 

 that is in the soil until the new leaves are 

 formed. This early growth must be insured 

 by the work of the leaves the season before. 

 For this reason we place great stress on the 

 health and protection of the foliage as men- 

 tioned in the chapter on Spraying. For the 

 same reason the leaves should not be stripped 

 from the young nursery trees (in order to 

 hasten delivery) and deprive them of their de- 

 velopment and thereby causing them to make 

 feeble growth, or in many instances fail to 

 grow at all. 



Terminal Bud. — The question often arises 

 as to how we shall know whether or not our 

 trees are growing too late in the season, This 



