Each particular kind of fruit requires special pruning; for example, the peach should be made to assume the shape illustrated in Fig. 77. This is done by successive trimmings, following the plan illustrated in Figs. 71, 78, 79. You will gain several advantages from these trimmings. First, nourishment will be forced into the peach bud that you set on your stock. This will secure a vigorous growth of the scion. By a second trimming take off the "heel" (Fig. 78, h) close to the tree, and thus prevent decay at this point. One year after budding you should reduce the tree to a "whip," as in Fig. 79, by trimming at the dotted line in Fig. 78. This establishes the "head" of the tree, which in the case of the peach should be very low,—about sixteen inches from the ground,—in order that a low foliage may lessen the danger of sun-scald to the main trunk.
Fig. 77. The Customary Way of pruning a Peach
Fig. 78. Two-Year-Old Tree
Cut off heel, h
In pruning never leave a stump such as is shown in Fig. 78, h. Such a stump, having no source of nourishment, will heal very slowly and with great danger of decay. If this heel is cleanly cut on the line ch (Fig. 78), the wound will heal rapidly and with little danger of decay. Leaving such a stump endangers the soundness of the whole tree. Fig. 80 shows the results of good and poor pruning on a large tree. When large limbs are removed it is best to paint the cut surface. The paint will ward off fungous disease and thus keep the tree from rotting where it was cut.
Pruning that leaves large limbs branching, as in Fig. 74, a, is not to be recommended, since the limbs when loaded with fruit or when beaten by heavy winds are liable to break. Decay is apt to set in at the point of breakage. The entrance of decay-fungi through some such wound or through a tiny crevice at such a crotch is the beginning of the end of many a fruitful tree.
Fig. 79. Three-Year-Old Tree cut back
