68 



FRUIT TREES. 



lower end of the suppressed shoot (fig. 50), whicli, in \ 

 three years more, become flower-buds. The vacant 

 part is then filled up, but at least a year is lost in the 

 formation of flower-buds. At other times, when the 

 lower leaves of the suppressed shoot have eyes at their 

 base, those eyes give place to so many premature bud« 

 immediately after this excessive pinching (fig. 51). 

 These premature shoots do not become well-constituted, 

 branches, and set for fruit less freely than branches 



Fig. 51. 



produced from shoots pinched in the proper manner, 

 that is, leaving to them a length of two or three inches 

 (fig. 47). 



Each of the branch extensions of the wood is fur- 

 nished with a bud so favourably situated, as regards 

 the action of the sap (A, fig. 45), that the repeated 

 pinchings to which we may submit the shoot which it 

 produces, diminish its vigour very slightly, and it 

 always produces a too vigorous shoot. It will be better 

 to treat such in the following manner : — ^When it has 

 obtained a length of about three inches, cut it ofl* at 

 the base, leaving only a very small portion of the 

 lower end (A, fig. 53). The two supplementary buds, 



