PRUNING AND TRAINING. 



29 



The sap develops the branches much more vigorously 

 upon a branch cut short, than upon one left long. 



It is evident that if tlie sap acts only upon one or 

 two branches, it makes them develop with much 

 greater vigour than if it is divided among fifteen or 

 twenty. If, therefore, we desire to obtain more wood, 

 we mast prune the branches down a great deal, be- 

 cause vigorous shoots develop very few flower-buds ; 

 if, on the contrary, we wish to develop fruit-branches, 

 we must be careful to cut them down very little, 

 because the least -vigorous branches are the most 

 charged with fruit blossoms. Another application of 

 this principle is in the case of a tree that has been 

 exhausted by bearing a too great quantity of fruit ; 

 we re-establish its vigour by pruning it short for a year. 



This last application may appear to contradict what 

 has been advanced in a former paragraph (p. 25), but 

 the contradiction is only in appearance. In the first 

 instance, we only cut short certain branches of the 

 tree ; and so far diminish, to the profit of those left to 

 grow to a greater length, the powers of absorption 

 that they exercise upon the sap from the roots. The 

 shoots which they develop are certainly more vigorous 

 than those growing upon the long branches, but they 

 are less so than if all the branches of the tree were 

 subjected to the same suppression, for one part of the 

 sap due to them is turned to the profit of the nume- 

 rous shoots growing upon the long branches, and the 

 vigour of which is thus augmented. In a word, the 

 shoots upon the long branches are not so vigorous as 



