370 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



fruit. All fruit branches are first wood branches, and all fruit bnds are first 

 wood buds, and if left to their natural form of growth the trees may remain 

 unproductive and also assume tendencies to disease; hence the necessity of the 

 pruning about to be described. The slender tliong branches that tend to fill 

 up the center of the tree and also to clothe the outer branches are those which, 

 if properly managed, in two or three years will develop fruit buds and produce 

 fruit. 



The process consists in stopping the lengthening growth of these shoots by 

 pinching them off during the last of June, when they have attained a 

 length of eight or ten inches. This stops the lengthening growth at the season 

 of the most active circulation of the sap, and the leaves being abundantly 

 supplied Avith nourishment that otherwise would have been expended in wood 

 growth, now appropriate and elaborate the sap for the developing of the remain- 

 ing buds, which, from the more favorable conditions, became Iruit buds. The 

 terminal buds in shoots so stopped will generally again commence growth for 

 the lengthening of the shoot alter a short period, but these being of slower 

 and more feeble growth are generally left to the end of the season, but if they 

 are strong they are again stopped. 



At the end of the season it will be necessary to cut back all branches to the 

 point where they were first stopped, and if the topmost shoots and the main 

 side arms that have been allowed full growth for expanding the tree have grown 

 vigorously, they should be cut back one-half in order to maintain a compact, 

 well-proportioned tree, and for the purpose of removing the late, immature 

 growth which with the quince is liable to be injured by freezing, causing blight. 

 This method of pinching in summer and pruning in autumn, if continued two 

 or three years will not fail to produce fruit with any thrifty tree of bearing 

 age, as it provides abundant fruit spars and checks excessive wood growth. 

 Alter the trees are well established in bearing, the perfecting of the fruit checks 

 excessive growth, and there is less occasion for pruning. 



THE NATURAL WAY. 



The Rural Canadian makes some points that may not be wholly in accord 

 with the system of many of our Michigan orchardists, still most of them are 

 well taken, and may set orchardists that are very " artificial" in their methods 

 to thinking. 



The fact is, that all the troubles with tree trunks in orchards may be traced 

 to an unnatural mode of culture. Nature has ordered that there shall be a 

 growth of branches on all fruit trees, from quite near the ground, but man has 

 determined that there shall be a bare trunk from six to ten feet in height. On 

 nature's plan, a thick leafy shade is formed around tlie trunk, and as the eggs 

 of those insects that cause bark troubles are laid by the parents when in the 

 winged state, and they do not incline to fly into the shade, such trees enjoy 

 immunity from these evils, while the bare trunks are fully exposed to them. 

 Nor is this all. The growth of branches low down on the trunk protects from 

 the heat of the sun in summer, and from the severity of the wind in winter, 

 while it keeps the ground moist and cool, so favoring the healthful growth of 

 roots. It is only in the dense forest tliat trees grow up with high, bare trunks, 

 and there the number of them, and their close proximity to each other, secures 

 the benefits which the tree, growing singly and alone, obtains from the encir- 



