It will readily be seen the increase is tremendous. It is only limited by the power of the soil to fling out new shoots, and the _necessities_ of the plant, for, as I have explained, when as much foliage exists as the plant requires, but few new shoots are produced.
Now supposing the shoot in the diagram to be (with perhaps another not shown at _L_) the first on the branch _I I_ in the spring (the said branch having been cut off or pruned at the upper _I_). It is then evident the said shoot is destined to be the parent and producer of all the very numerous branches and innumerable shoots into which the plant will extend in that direction. It is, in other words, the goose which will lay all the future eggs. If, eager to begin Tea making early, the planter nips it off, the extension on that part of the tree is thrown back many weeks. It may be taken off at 1, 2, or 3 (the back lines drawn show the proper way to pick leaf); the least damage will be done if it is taken off at 1, the most at 3.
The said shoot _K a_ is the first effort of Nature to repair the violence done to the tree by pruning. It is the germ of many other branches and shoots, and it ought _never_ to be taken. I have, I hope, made so much plain.
There is, however, another consideration. Any shoot, left to fully develop and harden, does not throw out new shoots from the existing buds 1, 2, 3, 4 so quickly as one checked in its upward growth by nipping off its head. For instance, supposing the shoot under consideration _not_ to be the first of the season, but on the contrary to be a shoot when the plant has developed sufficiently to make picking safe, if taken off at 2, then the new growth from 2, 3, 4 will be much quicker than it would be had the whole shoot been left intact.
Our object then with _first_ shoots should be to secure this advantage without destroying any buds, and this we can do by taking off simply the closed leaf at the top _a_. This must be done so as not to injure the bud at the base of the second leaf _b_ (I have not numbered it, for there is no room in the diagram to do so), and we shall thus leave all the buds on the shoot intact.
Again here the interests of the plant, and profit to the planter, go hand in hand. The closed bud _a_ in this case will be found very valuable. I go to show this.