236 ANNUAL REPORT. OF THE Off. Doc. 



remaius. These trees, ouce the admiration of the commuuity, the 

 delight of the childreu, the pride of the farmer, now stand bare and 

 desolate with their epitaph written all over their scarred surface — 

 died of neglect and starvation. 



How to remedy this sad state of affairs and avoid its repetition in 

 the future is what I am supposed to tell you. This is a difficult 

 task, as it is a subject upon which opinions differ, nearly every 

 horticulturist and fruit raiser having some pet theory of their own 

 which have proven successful in their case. Why not? There is 

 no one royal road to success; so that Nature's laws are carried out 

 it matters not if methods differ. One man plants and prunes ac- 

 cording to his belief in the characters of the constellations believing 

 the sign of the virgin to be one of fruitfulness, ia the first quar- 

 ter with moon pointing down. Another believes the sign of the 

 scale to be the right one, but he wants the last quarter, with moon 

 pointing up. You will find in every community farmers perfectly 

 sane on all else who will not plant their fence-posts when the moon 

 points up or plant their beans when the moon points down. But the 

 days of ignorance and superstition are fast passing away and the 

 bright rays of science are lighting the pathway and guiding the foot- 

 steps of the modern horticulturist. 



Pruning is the prime factor in the building up of a profitable or- 

 chard. The tree is as susceptible of training as a child; in fact, 

 more so as you can train a tree as you wish. You can prune for 

 wood growth, you can prune for the development of fruit spurs. You 

 can make or mar a tree by pruning. The old saying, " there is a time 

 for everything," is especially true with pruning and that time is 

 wh€n the tree requires it. The trouble with pruning is, the work is 

 frequently put oft" from time to time and then too much is done at 

 once, frequently to the injury of the tree. 



There is no branch in orcharding that reiiuires better judgment 

 than that of pruning. It is necessary to understand the nature and 

 the habits of the tree you desire to prune; to understand the in- 

 dividuality of the root system as well as the top. Trees differ 

 greatly both in root and top formation. The peach being a vigor- 

 ous, rampant grower requiring large amount of available food for 

 its grow^th and maintenance and maturing of its heavy crops of fruit, 

 has a large number of fibrous roots starting from the body and larger 

 roots than has the apple and pear. He should know where these 

 new roots start first in a newly planted tree, whether from the fibrous 

 roots, from the sides of the larger roots, from the cut ends or as 

 adventitious roots starting from the body below the collar of the 

 tree. When he understands these he is ready for the first step in 

 pruning. What methods shall w^e adopt? The string-fellow method 

 cutting off all the roots close to the stem or leaving mere stubs, or 



