STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Ill 



Take the entire broken piece off, no matter where it is. Then 

 turn the tree around and begin to cut back one-third. The 

 small roots don't need much pruning. The tree should be 

 planted at least one inch deeper than where it was budded. 

 That puts the tree down a little lower than it grew in the nur- 

 sery. 



Some nurserymen recommend not to prune the tops at all, 

 but to set the tree out just as it came from the nursery. I 

 don't believe in it, because the tree has a greater proportion of 

 top to support than it has root to support it. The theory on 

 the part of the nurserymen is this, — that you must have foliage 

 to draw the sap, and hence if there is an abundance of foliage 

 in the top of the tree it stimulates root growth. Well, that 

 depends upon conditions. If there is a moist season, plenty 

 of rain-fall, and an abundance of moisture in the soil, that tree 

 will grow and support the whole top, but if there is a dry sea- 

 son following the planting, there will be ten or fifteen per cent 

 loss when the whole tops are left upon the trees. I plant a 

 thousand trees at a time and have not lost one tree out of a 

 thousand, and my practice has been simply to go through and 

 prune back at least two-thirds of the top — the roots one-third 

 and the tops two-thirds — cutting down to a bud that shall have 

 an outward growth. There is sufficient root, having two-thirds 

 of the root and one-third of the top; there is no reason why a 

 thousand trees should not grow when a thousand trees are 

 planted. There wnll be sufficient foliage to draw sap. If this 

 is planted next spring, there should be at least a growth of two 

 feet by next autumn. 



Question: Would you cover these cuts with anything? 



Mr. Powele : No, it is not necessary ; so small a cut as these 

 will heal over. 



Question : Haven't you found, having it so close to the 

 bud, that in a dry season it will go back to the next bud ? 



Mr. Powell : If it does, I should reprune. Once in a while 

 the bud may fail to grow. Then I should prune back as soon 

 as I discovered it was not growing. 



Question : Was that tree propagated from a piece of a root 

 or a full plant? 



Mr. Powell: I should say that this tree was propagated 

 from a whole root for the reason that I cut off a long tap root. 



