48 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTDRAL SOCIETY. 



best what she needs, and therefore says let the tree alone and it will 

 bear more fruit of just as good quality, and the trees will be a great 

 deal more healthy, and he leaves his trees alone until they are a dense 

 thicket of limbs and sprouts which entirely shut out the sunlight from 

 the inner portion of the tree, and makes it almost impossible to gather 

 the fruit, then nature begins and you will find many of the finest limbs 

 dying out, making a very unsightly object, and often leaving bad de- 

 cayed places that soon terminate its existence. 



Another says you must have your trees with high tops so you can 

 get around them with a team, you must have an open top so the fruit 

 will ripen up nicely. He goes in with ax and saw, cuts out one half or 

 more of the top which so weakens the vitality of the tree that it is 

 soon gone. I do not believe in the ax and saw pruning at all, any limb 

 larger than a lead pencil should never be cut off', but in the first place 

 no limb that needs to come off should be allowed to get any larger. 

 Take a good thrifty tree two years old from the nursery, trim out the 

 top to just what should be left, leaving a center stem, with no forks, 

 nothing will be needed the tirst season except good cultivation. 



The next season go over the trees twice, once in June and then 

 again about the first of September, and rub off" all buds, that have 

 started where you want no limbs, do this four or five seasons and your 

 orchard will need no pruning afterward. 



This is the way I would have a new orchard attended to. But 

 again we must take things as we find them, and we will find but i'ew 

 orchards that have been treated in this manner. So now what shall we 

 do ? If your orchard has been overpruned, there is nothing much to be 

 done except to keep the water sprouts off' by rubbing off' the buds and, 

 you will find plenty of them to keep you busy. 



If, on the other hand, it has not been pruned, about the middle of 

 June commence, and if your orchard is full of fruit there is not much 

 danger of your pruning too much, as the waste of Iruit is always staring 

 you in the face, but if you have no fruit be very cautious or you will 

 prune too much ; cut but little from the south and west sides of the 

 tree ; the north and east sides are always the heaviest ; cut out the cross- 

 ing limbs, thin out sparingly and cover all wounds with thick paint or 

 wax. I prefer the paint as it is more convenient ; cut no limbs larger 

 than one and a half inches only in extreme cases ; don't forget the paint, 

 as that is very important, an 1 don'c cut too much, better too little than 

 to much, if you have not enough you can cut again, but if to much it 

 is not so easily remedied. Be sure to follow up with the thumb and 

 finger pruning as soon as the buds start ; if it is a little late in the sea- 

 son they may not start before the next season, if you fail to do this, 

 .you will soon have a greater job on hands than before. 



