1 90S.] 



Pruning Fruit Trees. 



29 



wood, which, however, is not likely to be very coarse. Summer 

 pruning is good and may be practised as for apples, but 

 it is not, as a rule, so essential as with apples, because 

 the risk of over-crowding is less. With or without summer 

 pruning there must be winter pruning, the young wood being 

 cut in close to the main stem or spur as the case may be. 



After many years of pruning, the spurs on wall pears 

 sometimes increase in size to such a degree as to become both 

 weak and unsightly. They may be crowded with fruit buds, 



PEAR TREE, HORIZONTALLY TRAINED. 



(a), stock ; [b), point of budding or grafting ; (c), scion or variety of pear - r 

 {d), point of heading maiden tree; (<?), point of second shortening; (/), point of 

 third (prospective) cutting back ; (g), leading or stem growth with laterals (k) 

 pinched; (z), side branches (prospective); (_/), one year side shoots or branches; 

 (k), laterals pinched; (/), laterals marked for shortening; (/;/), spurs with blossom 

 buds ; (;/), short shoot with bold bud at the extremity, generally a blossom, 

 bud (not to be shortened). One side of the tree is shown in leaf and the other 

 side bare. 



but these are small and do not yield good fruit. In such a 

 case the spurs may be reduced in size with great advantage. 



Plums.— Well trained plum trees are very easy to prune, 

 because when once they have developed a fruiting habit they 

 do not make any great amount of wood. The summer shoots 

 are generally limited, both in number and size. Thus, it is 

 rarely necessary to summer-prune them. The breast- wood 

 may be spurred back in winter similarly to pears. Fruiting 

 spurs will form on the matured growth. There will also, in 

 healthy trees, be a considerable number of " stubs," which, in 



