242 ANNUAL REPORT. OF THE Off. Doc. 



properly nurtured, if you got your trees trained right and nurtured 

 right, you will be successful. 



MR. STOUT: In trimming trees, how can it be determined how the 

 top will form afterwards? 



Answer: It is presumed that a man in planting an orchard knows 

 the variety he is going to plant. If he has studied carefully, he 

 knows some are not straight in habit. Did you ever know of any 

 business man engaging in any enterprise that would last a lifetime 

 who would go recklessly and blindly into that enterprise? If he 

 will attend the farmers' institutes, he will understand how to train 

 these trees. 



MR. STOUT: We had no farmers' institutes when we started these 

 orchards. 



MR. CURE : Do you recommend starting these trees only about 2^ 

 feet from the ground? 



Answer: I do. , 



MR. HOOVER: In regard to scoring, would you score the whole 

 trunk of a tree which is "hide-bound" or "bark-bound." 



Answ^er: No. Give it suthcient nourishment to soften that bark. 

 If it is properly fed and the trunk kept in good condition by spray- 

 ing and washing, it will not be "hide-bound." 



MR. RODGERS: I understand Dr. Funk to say that 3-inch pruning 

 proved to be the best. Why was it that it proved to be better than 

 either of the other two prunings? 



Answer: I don't know that I can give you any scientitic reason. I 

 gave you an account of experiments that had been conducted in Dela- 

 ware. In every instance the 3-inch pruning has given the best suc- 

 cess. Perhaps Professor Butz can give you the reason. 



PROF. BUTZ: I do not know that there is any scientific reason. 

 It is our practice to prune long roots short and to prune the top at 

 the time of transplanting. Our directions are to prune the top to 

 correspond with the reduction of the root. There is a longer course 

 for the food to travel before it reaches the growing portion of the 

 stem. Grapes make long roots ;%we cut them short. In celery, cab- 

 bage and strawberries, we shorten the roots because the develop- 

 ment of rootlets is nearer to the plant itself. Just why there is such 

 a difference between 3-inch and 5-inch pruning, I do not quite see. 

 Of course it takes a great n'umber of instances to prove or to settle 

 a principle. If one experiment which had a number of trees in it, is 



