14 Thk CoIvOrado Experime:nt Station. 
move superfluous fruiting wood, and to give the tree the desired 
shape. The mature peach tree should make an annual growth of at 
least eighteen inches. With such new growth much of the new wood 
will have to be removed entirely while that remaining may be cut 
back to remove a part of the fruit buds it carries. While some 
object to shortening-in the fruiting wood, contending that it injures 
the fruit, the years of experience of our most careful growers rec¬ 
ommend rather than condemn such a system of thinning. While 
it does not take the place of hand-thinning entirely, it does save a 
great deal of tedious hand work. It is hard to say just how much 
of the new wood is to be removed or how much the remainder should 
be shortened in. Probably four-fifths is removed entirely, the 
amount removed from that remaining depending more upon the 
location of the fruit buds. With the older tree it may be half or 
even more, while in the case of the young tree it may be necessary 
to leave the laterals unpruned, on account of the fruit buds being 
nearer the tips. Figure 6 shows a four-year-old Elberta that has 
made a very satisfactory growth. Figure 7 shows the same tree 
well pruned. From now on this tree must be carefully watched to 
keep it within bounds. As the framework stiffens the tree may be 
spread a little more, but it should not be allowed to go much higher. 
It is a common practice to do the heavier pruning earlier in the 
spring, leaving the clipping back and thinning of the new wood 
until later, some waiting until all danger of frost is past. The 
pruner should constantly keep before him an ideal form for the 
peach tree, the well grown young orchard, at the mercy of a care¬ 
less pruner, may become ungainly and unproductive at the age of 
ten years. Effort should be made to keep the fruit as near the 
ground as possible; most of the fruit on a five-year-old tree should 
be reached from the ground, and in no peach orchard should the 
picker need a ladder longer than six feet. (See Fig. 5.) The 
depth of the fruiting area of the peach tree will seldom exceed six 
or seven feet, and an attempt to increase this depth only results in 
a smothering out of the wood below. Figure 8 shows a seven- 
year-old tree that is really getting too high.. Note the scarcity of 
fruiting wood in the lower part of the tree. This tree may be 
forced to develop new wood below if the top is well cut back. 
Figure 9 shows about how such a type of tree should be pruned. 
This tree could have still been pruned a little, heavier in the top. 
A better plan is to increase the productiveness of the tree by in¬ 
creasing its spread rather than its height. The ideal peach tree is 
one in which the top just comes within a right angle or, in other 
words, the spread should be almost double the height. Figure 10 
illustrates the point very well. Notice how the head is well filled 
with fruiting wood, and compare with Figure ii, a tree of the 
