112 THE MODERN PEACH PRUNER. 



soon as 9 inches of growth were made) is a valu- 

 able plan, and very useful in regulating the growth 

 of the whole side of the tree. 



This modification of close pruning has been 

 introduced here for the sake of completing our 

 description of the subject, and to show that there 

 exists more than one form of the system. It also 

 proves the interest excited in the matter, and is 

 suggestive in itself of further improvements. 

 Being the very latest continental experience it is 

 also of value. 



No. 16. — Close Pruning for the Open Air. 



I have now to state the original theory as broached 

 about thirty years ago, and carried out up to the 

 present date at Chartres. The system has been 

 applied exclusively to trees in the open air. 



In the earlier stages of growth, it is a recognised 

 principle that the summer-stopping of the shoots 

 and their winter regulation should be but small ; 

 consisting mainly in merely pinching off the point 

 of the growing shoot, and especially in checking 

 the advance of any shoot which has a tendency to 

 become gross. In this way the tree is kept in 

 fair balance. It is thus prepared for the work in 

 hand, to be done only when the tree is about to 

 bear a little. 



