Page:The Olive Its Culture in Theory and Practice.djvu/112

90 should be cut off, leaving only enough for appearance sake, and the stronger ones pruned long.

The action of the sap on the buds of a vertical branch is in proportion to their distance from the base of that branch. So the new shoots produced by the buds of a pruned branch will be stronger the nearer they are to its base. But if a branch is bent over, or arched, the bud in the highest position will produce the strongest germ, and the rest will be weaker the nearer they approach the extremity. In horizontal branches the case is different. The buds on the upper side are generally stronger than those nearest the ground. So, if the last bud on a branch is on the lower side, and the next to the last on the upper, the latter will be the stronger.

All branches that grow strong where they should be weak, and vice versa, are contrary to nature and should be cut off. The leaves have a powerful influence over the quantity and movement of the sap. This is augmented or diminished in proportion to their number. If an olive is robbed of its leaves, the flow of the sap is checked and the fruit falls. So where a tree has an excess of vigor, it may be contained within more reasonable bounds by thinning out the leaves.

The wild olive tree, or the tree from seed, if never transplanted, its tap root unclipped, is perfectly proportioned, its stem is straight, its bark smooth, its branches arch in beautiful equality, making a perfectly formed crown. But in the cultivated tree, the tree from a cutting, the tree that has already felt the knife, the order of nature has been disarranged and the tree, far from making a regular growth, if left to itself, will often take a most uncouth and ill-proportioned shape, and in appearance alone calls for the pruning knife.

The first six branches left on a young tree, three on each side, become the principal or primary branches of the tree, from these grow others called the secondary which in turn produce those of the third order. From these spring a multitude of small branches and twigs of one, two and three years of age. Those of two and three