HORTICULTURAL RESEARCH 399 



the cutting back is performed makes no difference whatever 

 so long as it is done before active growth sets in ; trees cut 

 back at various times between November (when they were 

 planted) and the middle of April (when they were beginning 

 to grow) all behaved in the same way : but when the cutting 

 back was deferred till July, it was seriously detrimental, the 

 trees showing a marked deficiency of growth and vitality 

 during each of the subsequent eight years. Rather than cut a 

 tree back in the summer, it is much better to defer the operation 

 altogether till the following winter. The effect of such delay, 

 however, is not good, though it varies considerably in different 

 cases. It cannot be good for a tree to remain, even for one 

 season, in the condition exhibited in fig. 2 ; and even if a tree 

 be cut back after the first year, one season's healthy growth 

 will have been lost. In some cases a tree treated thus will 

 continue to lag behind its fellows which were cut back on 

 planting, whilst in other cases it has been found that very 

 vigorous growth has followed the deferred cutting back, the 

 tree maintaining this vigorous habit of growth for several 

 years; the result being that it has grown only, whilst it ought 

 to have been growing (though more moderately) and also 

 fruiting. In one plantation of apples where this deferred cutting 

 back had been adopted, the crop during the first five years 

 after planting was only one-quarter of that of similar trees 

 which had been cut back at once, though the trees themselves 

 were 10 per cent, greater in size than the latter. In another 

 case there was a deficiency of 40 per cent, of fruit during the 

 first eight years. 



Branch-Pruning : Effect on Growth 



There are various sayings current amongst horticulturists 

 embodying the idea that the more a tree is pruned, the more 

 it will grow. It is obvious that whatever truth there may be 

 in such an dea, it can only be true within certain limits ; now 

 direct experiment shows that these limits are very narrow 

 indeed. When the branches are cut away, the roots will be in 

 excess of the requirements of the tree and new branches will be 

 formed, the tree endeavouring, as it were, to repair the 

 injury. In the case of a tree which is old and has ceased to 

 grow or of one which has become stunted from other causes, 

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