FIFTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT. 81 



much the same materials for their growth that the branches demand. 

 Especial care must be exercised in the pruning, to see that the cuts are 

 made in many places throughout the tree so as to encourage a stimulation 

 toward shoot development at many points. If the tree is a very large one, 

 the pruning may bo fairly heavy, but in no case should anything even 

 approaching a "dehorning" be given. If the tree is smaller, the pruning 

 should be rather light, except for such cuts as may be needed to correct 

 bad form. Remember that the pruning is to supplement fertilizers 

 and cultivation, that it can not profitably replace them, and that it is 

 mainly to aid in distributing the responses which come from those prac- 

 tices. Pruning of any kind is generally, though perhaps not always, a 

 subtractive process. But it is none the less an exceedinlgly valuable 

 means of directing tree growth and production, and is very nearly an 

 indispensible one in modern fruit growing. 



If the treatments of alternate bearing trees are begun in the "off" 

 year, the same general practices are available as before. In the "off" 

 year the alternating trees usually form very large numbers of fruit buds, 

 in some cases an exceedingly large percentage of all the buds on the tree 

 are developed as fruit buds. This is a bad condition, since it results 

 in a very heavy bloom the following spring, which is usually followed 

 by a heavy fall of flowers which fail to set, and a large crop of fruit. All 

 these occurrences lead to a depletion of the reserves of the tree to the 

 extent that few or no fruit buds are formed during the year of bloom. 

 Instead then, of allowing the tree to produce the maximum number of 

 fruit buds during the off year, the tree should be stimulated to greater 

 growth, a growth sufficient to force a fairly large percentage of the shoots 

 into the longer, more sturdy class which remain vegetative. But this 

 can be done with less nitrogenous fertilizers during the "off year" than 

 during the "on" year, since there is no crop of fruit buds or of fruit 

 on the trees, which would take up a part of the nitrogen. The dis- 

 tributed character of the pruning and its degree of severity should be 

 much the same as if done during the "on" year. Even a light pruning 

 during the "off" year, accompanied by fertilizer applications, will pro- 

 duce marked vegetative responses. 



The discussion in the two paragraphs just preceding has related to 

 trees growing in a soil deficient in nitrogen. If nitrogen is not deficient, 

 then bearing can be regulated almost entirely by pruning alone providing 

 the moisture supply is adequate. There are plenty of orchards the 

 country over, which are annual bearers. The owners of some of them 

 have not even troubled themselves to fertilize, prune, or cultivate them, 

 and yet they are successful commercially. The factors of the environ- 

 ment are so nicely combined that year after year these trees grow well 

 and produce well. Unfortunately however this is a rare condition, 

 and many orchards which in their younger days appeared to be in this 

 class, now require much closer attention. The number of older orchards, 

 however, which up to the present time, have not required commercial, 

 or organic fertilizers, is fairly large. Most of these require pruning to 

 maintain good form and profitable bearing, but in general such pruning 

 has been more severe than necessary. In addition this pruning has 

 often been confined to a few large cuts on the tree, resulting thus in the 

 uncut parts of the tree remaining much as they were before the pruning 

 was done, while other parts have actually been pruned so severely that 



