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JOURNAL OF TPTE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and make the tree growth profitable. Trees present in this case a 

 typical weeping appearance, and differ greatly in this respect from 

 those grown under regular pruning. Yoshioka's first method of 

 pruning (breaking) shoots is nothing short of the spur-pruning of the 

 fruiting shoots, and quite similar to that commonly practised on the 

 fruiting canes of vines grown under glass. 



The Kaki tree is similar in habit of fruiting to the vine. It bears 

 in the leaf- axils of rather strong shoots of the current year growth, 

 which start from a few well-matured plump buds near the apex of the 

 mother shoot. That is, flowers are borne at most on the four nodes, 

 from third to sixth from the base of the shoot. Weak, spur-like shoots 

 are always sterile, while gross shoots of excessive vigour also have no 

 fruit. Generally speaking, well-matured shoots of moderate length 

 which have been sterile in the current year only are able to start 

 fruiting shoots in the following year. Thus, we have to depend only 

 upon the well-matured shoots, and try to produce such shoots as much 

 as possible. For this reason renewal pruning, or at least the breaking 

 of shoots, is of significance in the successful growling of Kaki trees (fig. 

 176). 



Lately Yoshioka has brought out his second method of pruning by 

 which better results have always been obtained (fig. 177). It consists of 

 breaking the mother twig from which several fruiting shoots start. It 

 differs from His first method only in severing the system of those shoots, 

 not every fruiting shoot. By this process shoots starting from the re- 

 maining parts grow more vigorously, and improved results are always 

 obtained by this severer process than by the earlier method. 



By these means the habit of fruiting in alternate years is not 

 corrected, but thinning fruit answers as a corrective of this habit and 

 causes the trees to bear uniformly every year. 



Near Tokio there are among its growing centres two villages, 

 Komae and Noborito, which have long since co-operated in a curious 

 manner to les&en and regulate the yield in order to avoid a glut in the 

 market. Owing to the over-supply of fruit in the fruiting year no one 

 can sell at a profit. To overcome this difficulty one of those villages 

 practises the removal of the flowers while young in the fruiting year, 

 and thus causes an off-year to be fruitful in an artificial manner. By 

 this means Kaki trees in these villages bear in alternate years. Thus, 

 the fruit supply in the market being well regulated, a glut can be 

 avoided. 



This practice seems to have derived only from considerations of 

 individual economy of the grower, but not from the co-operative idea 

 of the villagers in both places. 



It has long been said among our people that Kaki trees dislike 

 pruning by a knife or iron tools. This erroneous idea has spread, and 

 is still common. The idea seems to have sprung from the fact of the 

 slow healing of wounds in the root, as well as from the brittleness of 

 the shoots. They are indeed liable to suffer from severing of the roots 

 in particular. I have, however, had an opportunity of practising knife- 

 pruning, and have succeeded in getting handsomer trees than by break- 

 ing the shoots. 



