146 



FRUIT TREES. 



following their birth, but they produce no more blos- 

 soms. Those which appear the following year are from 

 new fruit-buds which have grown during the preceding 

 summer upon the primitive branch. It follows, there- 

 fore, that the first thing to be attended to in the 

 management of peaches is to obtain the fruit- spurs, 

 and to replace them year by year. 



We have already said that the fruit- spurs must be 

 made to grow regularly from each side of the branches, 

 about four inches apart, in such a manner that each 

 branch shall be in the form of a fish's skeleton. This 

 result is obtained as follows : — 



First Tear. — We take, for example, any extension of 

 a branch developed during the preceding summer 

 (fig. 120). At the winter pruning a part of the new 

 extension is cut back, in order to make it develop all 

 the buds that it carries. Unless this operation were 

 performed, a number of buds at the base of the tree 

 would remain inactive, and there would be a void 

 upon the branch very difiicult to fill up, for the buds 

 that had not been developed the first year would be 

 useless the next. Towards the middle of May the 

 extension presents the appearance of fig. 121 ; all the 

 buds have expanded into shoots. When the shoots 

 have attained a length of about three inches, the useless 

 buds must be removed, including such as grow in front 

 (A, fig. 121) or at the back of the branches. There is 

 no exception to this, unless some of the side buds are 

 too wide apart, in which case a front or back bud may 

 be left, to supply the vacant place (C D, fig. 121). If 

 there is any choice, the bud at the back of the branch 



