Specifications fok Successful Fbuit-Gbowing 1717 



coming- it is better that the holes be dug, as it is quite as probable 

 that harm rather than good will be done through the use of ex- 

 plosives. 



top-working 



The practice of setting a thrifty variety of apples or pears and 

 grafting or budding a weaker or less healthy variety wanted, has 

 many advocates. This top-working is probably a procedure worth 

 while with a very few varieties. In general, however, the chances 

 of getting malformed, lop-sided trees and of delaying the bearing 

 period are so great that top-working cannot be recommended ex- 

 cept for a very few sorts that seem difficult to grow on their own 

 roots. They can be best top-worked in the nursery. 



PRUNING AT TRANSPLANTING 



We are ready to set the tree and the problem of pruning is be- 

 fore us. It is necessary to cut away part of the branches to enable 

 the injured root system to supply the remaining branches with 

 water. The less the roots are injured the less the top need be cut 

 away. The common way is to cut back all of the branches. This, 

 in many cases, is wrong. The top buds on a branch develop soon- 

 est and produce the largest leaves. A newly set tree will grow 

 best if it can develop a large leaf surface before dry, hot weather 

 sets in, and this it will do if some branches are left intact. There- 

 fore, instead of shortening-in all branches, cut away some of the 

 branches entirely. The tree so pruned will start growth and ac- 

 quire vigor more quickly. 



HEIGHT OF HEAD 



A choice must be made at the start as to the height of the head. 

 The choice should usually be for a low-headed tree for the reason 

 that such a tree is more easily sprayed and pruned and the fruit 

 more readily thinned and harvested; crop and tree are less subject 

 to injury by wind; the trunk is less liable to injury by sunscald, 

 winter-killing and parasites; the top is more quickly formed and 

 the low-headed tree soonest boars fruit. No advantage as to cul- 

 tivation is gained by either method over the other, as a well trained 

 tree with a low head, in which the branches ascend obliquely, per- 

 mits the cultivator to come sufficiently near the tree. By low- 

 headed is meant a distance from earth to the first limb of from one 



