PRUNING 



the form which growth takes that should be remem- 

 bered when pruning. One, applying to trees especially, 

 is that leading branches must never be allowed to spring 

 from the same point on the trunk — or from opposite 

 the same point is perhaps a clearer way to put it — while 

 the other, applicable to every sort of plant, is that, 

 generally speaking, the outer shoots or branches should 

 be left and the inner ones cut away. 



In the first instance the tree is weakened structur- 

 ally and will split more readily under stress of wind or 

 ice — or fruit — when its branches diverge at just the same 

 level, forming a sharp crotch or Y; in the second, a 

 plant becomes choked and top-heavy if inner growth is 

 constantly encouraged, and the branches suffer injury 

 from rubbing against each other. 



Next in importance to these, to be equally carefully 

 remembered, is the fact that every tree or shrub or vine 

 has its own little personal peculiarity about flowers 

 and the manner of producing them — and produces them 

 only on v/ood of a certain age — sometimes one year old, 

 sometimes two, sometimes still more. So it is always 

 necessary to know the peculiarity of any plant in question 

 in this respect, before venturing to lop off a branch, else 

 an entire season's product may be destroyed. 



Of fruit trees, the apple and pear bear on spurs" 

 of old wood that may be anywhere along the branches, 

 but peaches are always borne on wood of the previous 

 season's growth. Trimming off the annual shoots will 

 therefore sacrifice the fruit of the latter but not of the 

 former, while "heading in" — that is removing the ends 



35 



