TRANSACTIONS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ILL. 333 



Now, if this latter period is the best, what time would you have to 

 perform the work after the frost is out of the ground and before the buds 

 begin to swell ? Then the work must be deferred till the latter part of June. 

 This is another short period ; and unless you have more men and means 

 at command than I have, you could accomplish but little in so short a 

 time, in an orchard of thirty or forty acres. 



The Doctor also states that there is but one time when pruning 

 should be absolutely interdicted, and that is when the wood is frozen. 

 Then comes in the old adage : " Prune in winter for wood, and in sum- 

 mer for fruit." 



Tyler McWhorter says, in Transactions of State Horticultural Society 

 for i8b8, page 213 : " Autumn or winter pruning is bad, as severe freez- 

 ing affects a fresh wound too deeply." 



Summer pruning is most free from subsequent sprouting, but it gives 

 the greatest check to the vitality of the tree. 



Arthur Bryant, Sen., one of our most prominent horticulturists, recom- 

 mends pruning in autumn, after the fall of the leaves. Every season has 

 its hurry, and what can not be accomplished in a given time has to be 

 deferred to another ; and so in regard to pruning — it is better done out 

 of season than not done at all. I have pruned in all seasons of the year, 

 except in winter and in May. 



I have been pruning during the mild weather of the present month 

 (January), scraping off the rough bark and painting the wounds. As I stated 

 above, it is almost impossible to prune an orchard of thirty or forty acres 

 in a few days, at any season ; and as we differ as to the best time, let us 

 use all seasons, so that we accomplish the desired result ; for pruning must 

 be done, and severely, too, on our orchards of twenty-five years' stand- 

 ing — there is scarcely a sound tree to be found in them. This is a start- 

 ling announcement, but it is, nevertheless, true; and the saw and the 

 knife must be used vigorously ; there are many dead branches, and the 

 marks of the cicada are still visible. The extremities of the limbs should 

 be shortened back instead of trimming them up; or, in other words, trim 

 down instead of, up ; by this treatment I still have hope that our orchards 

 may last for some years. Many varieties are sending out new and vigor- 

 ous shoots, which will eventually form a new head ; these should be 

 retained rather than cut away. 



Mode of Pninivg. — This is a subject which should interest all 

 orchardists. I passed by an orchard in company with a horticulturist, 

 who asked why the owner did not cut down his trees and trim them 

 afterward. In this orchard the limbs were trinwied up to a little tuft 

 on the ends of the limbs, all the small branches having been cut away, 

 and I did not wonder at the remark. 



Our orchards will have to be trimmed on the renewal system, head- 

 ing back and saving the new growth. Furthermore, we will have to trim 

 up, so that the land can be plowed. This is contrary to my former con- 

 victions, but the blue grass so soon takes possession of the ground that it 

 becomes absolutely necessary. 



