24 BULLETIN U11, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE 
remain more than three or four years. Those which are not sufficiently vig- 
orous to make some twig growth during the summer and do not bear fruit are 
easily killed by shade. Also, much of the vigor of the fruiting spurs is lost by 
the production of heavy crops, and many fruiting spurs die after the fruit 
ripens. The spurs which die or those broken off are seldom replaced by new 
ones, as the tendency to make new wood is centered very largely in the ter- 
minal buds of twigs and spurs rather than along the branches on which they 
grow. By cutting back the branches and opening the tree to admit light, a 
vigorous growth of twigs is obtained ; and the supply of prolific fruiting wood 
is easily maintained. If trees are making only a fair wood growth and the 
new wood is moderately cut back in winter and the trees are kept open, when 
bearing fruit regularly, they retain spurs and twigs longer than heavily pruned 
trees which make a strong yearly growth. 
On trees which are heavily headed back in pruning, long, new shoots grow 
from near the point of pruning, whereas the new growth in the older parts of the 
trees is usually short and slender. The large shoots send out numerous 
branches and twigs their second season, but few if any spurs such as are pro- 
duced all along "the slender twigs grow on them. 
If summer temperatures are low, as in the cooler coastal region of Cali- 
fornia, and the 1-year-old wood has been headed back each winter, the 
new shoots near the ends of the cut-back branches are very vigorous and reach 
several feet in length, whereas the new growth in other parts of the tree is 
proportionately shorter and more slender than in the case of most varieties 
(pi. 20. A and B). In the tendency for the vegetative vigor to be propor- 
tionately much stronger in the headed-back tops than in the remainder of the 
tree, where growing in the cooler region, this variety is similar to the Grand 
Duke and Peach. 
Fruit is produced, for *he most part, at nodes of 1-year-old twigs and smaller 
branches where spurs are forming and on 1-year spurs. Spurs which have 
borne only a light crop or none at all when 1 year old bear well when 2 or 3 
years old, and if the tree is making a moderate wood growth and has been 
kept open they may bear for a few successive seasons. Little, if any, fruit is 
produced on 1-year-old twigs or shoots. The internodes of twigs and smaller 
branches are short, resulting in a rather compact cluster of fruit if the spurs 
have been kept vigorous by open pruning and if the twigs are short because 
of lack of soil moisture. 
GIANT 
Tree very vigorous, upright spreading, moderately open, and branches freely. 
The vigorous shoots which grow as a result of heading back the top make a 
heavy, erect growth, but the twigs and branches in other parts of the trees are 
slender and inclined to bend or droop (pi. 21, A). Its tendency is to produce 
twigs rather than spurs (pi. 21, B). 
The twiglike spurs which form on 1-year-old wood are short and unbranched. 
and almost all die at the end of the first season if they bear fruit. Spurs 
which are sufficiently vigorous to produce both fruit and leaves seldom remain 
as spurs but grow to twigs and branches, leaving no spurs on the older wood 
(pi. 21, C). The twigs and fruiting branches increase in diameter but little. 
After a few years they become long, slender, drooping branches by annual 
lengthening from the terminal bud. When growing conditions are unfavorable 
the yearly growth is very short, and a spurlike rather than twiglike growth 
takes place at the end of twigs and branches. New twigs appear from 
these spurlike twigs when conditions for wood growth improve. Where the 
crop on unpruned trees is heavy much fewer lateral twigs and spurs are pro- 
duced on the 1-year-old wood than on trees which were headed back or where 
the crop was light. The tendency to produce terminal growth from all twigs 
and branches is, however, so strong with this variety that under moderately 
favorable growing conditions plenty of new growth is produced, even on 
unpruned trees, to provide for regular cropping. In densely shaded portions 
of the tree the lateral twigs are often short and slender and many die after 
fruiting. This and the barren nodes at which fruit is borne on the 1-year-old 
wood result in long barren sections of the branch, as new twigs seldom spring 
from the old wood. 
The fruit is borne on leafless nodes along the basal section of the 1-year-old 
twigs and smaller branches, occasionally at nodes of 1-year-old wood where 
twigs are growing, and on 1-year-old leafless spurs, or spurs which have only 
