46 THE MODERN PEACH PRUNER. 



little or no shortening of the leading branches is 

 ever required. We require all the growth a tree 

 can make ; and the object proposed by shortening - 

 in the branches, often by fully one-third of their 

 length, so as to make the lower eyes break, can 

 and ought to be obtained by more natural means. 

 If we take care of the fruitful shoots these will 

 soon master the branch. The only use of the 

 latter is to carry the former, and these should be 

 especially attended to. 



3. If we wish to obtain fruitful shoots the 

 branches must be left as long as possible. A con- 

 trary practice produces only excessively vigorous 

 shoots which are unfruitful. Trees only produce 

 flower-buds when, after having acquired a certain 

 development, the sap circulates more slowly. The 

 forms which trained trees are made to assume, 

 very much contribute to favour the production of 

 flower-buds, by distributing the current of the sap 

 into diverging lines, and avoiding all vertical lines. 

 The more these forms are completed, the more 

 trouble the sap has to circulate, and the more time 

 it has to become fully elaborated in the leaves by 

 the action of the light, and air. The sap, con- 

 verted into cambium, must also descend more 

 slowly by each separate channel. This is a 

 valuable aid towards the production of fruit-buds, 

 these, probably, being produced by the descending 



