June 19, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
0- the succeeding year; which being the case, it behoves most 
gardeners to exercise care and judgment, at the same time dispelling 
all pre-conceived ideas that summer pruning consists only of shortening 
back the young shoots of all trees alike, and at one and the 
same time. 
Peaches and Nectarines take the first place amongst stone fruits, 
both in regard to their value and as being the earliest to push into 
growth. If they have been properly attended to up to the present 
the trees will have been disbudded twice or thrice by this time, so 
that all that is necessary for the rest of the season will simply be to 
nail in or tie, as the case may be, all young shoots required for next 
469 
Plums, both wall-trained and pyramidal, I always think should 
be left till the last week in June ; and when the crop is light, as is 
the case this year, and the trees in good health, it is advisable not to 
cut back the shoots too closely—indeed two-thirds of their length 
will be quite sufficient, the rest to be removed at the winter pruning. 
Pears may be treated in much the same way, and as this differs 
somewhat from the orthodox plan, or, rather, that which is considered 
to be so, perhaps I may be allowed briefly to state my reasons for 
advocating it. Given a strong healthy tree of Pear or Plum, wall- 
trained or pyramidal, cut back all young shoots near to their base 
not required for the extension of the tree, and what is the result ? 
Fig. 114. —Oestrum aurantiacuh. 
year’s bearing as they advanced in growth ; and we would here 
recommend that a space of fully 3 inches should intervene between 
each one. This will insure greater certainty of ripening the wood, 
and at the same time allow of sufficient room for the full development 
of the leaves, thereby producing strong and plump fruit buds for 
another season. Vigorous young shoots will frequently push lateral 
growths, which must never be allowed to extend, but be pinched back 
to the first leaf— i.e., on old and fully established trees ; but with 
younger ones the case is entirely different, for then the main object 
in view is to allow them to fill their allotted space in the shortest 
possible time. 
Apricots next demand attention, and all that is required to be 
done to these is merely to cut back all breast wood to three or four 
leaves, and to nail-in young shoots to fill up vacant spaces which have 
been created by older branches dying. 
Simply this, that in nine cases out of ten many of the buds which 
should go to form flowering ones for the succeeding year will be 
forced into premature growth shortly after being subjected to this 
close cutting-back process ; whereas, if they had only had two-thirds 
or thereabouts of their length cut off, the contrary would have been 
the case. Apples grown on the restriction system can also be treated 
in this way. 
We now come to small fruits, but of these there are only two 
kinds requiring our notice—viz., Gooseberries and Currants, and of 
only red and white varieties, whilst of the first named only those trained 
to walls. Anyone who has not hitherto practised summer pruning 
as here advocated for Currants and Gooseberries would, I feel sure, 
after a first trial adopt the plan. The young shoots are cut back 
about the second or third week in June to within four or five leaves 
of their base, and it only remains to be said that you will be rewarded 
