Winter Meeting. 365 



PRUNING. 



(N\ F. Murray, Oregon, Mo.) 



In the forty-sixth annual report of the Horticultural Society of Mis- 

 souri, beginning on page sixty, may be found an article on pruning the 

 orchard from planting to old age by N. F. Murray, and now, after the 

 brief space of two years, our worthy Secretary has assigned me to the 

 task of threshing over the same old straw. I presume his reason for 

 so doing is much the same as that of the old Virginia farmer, when, under 

 the old regime, the .threshing was done with the flail, who, on going to 

 his barn, met Sambo in the act of throwing out a batch of straw, which, 

 •on close inspection, was found to contain a few grains of wheat left in 

 the knots of the bands, ordered him to return it to the threshing floor and 

 give it another real good threshing. 



Well, inasmuch as Solomon said there was nothing new under the 

 sun, we will have to excuse our Secretary for not assigning us new 

 subjects, and just continue to pursue the even tenor of our way threshing 

 over the same old straw if perchance we may knock out a few more 

 grains, and at last learn just how to do it. 



PRUNING. 



This is one of the most important and vital subjects with which 

 the fruit grower has to deal. One on which a great deal has been 

 written by our most eminent fruit growers. And yet doubtless there 

 is much more for us to learn. As the years roll by we find the pruning 

 and management of our orchard a growing question, and we find it 

 necessary to change our views and our practice to meet conditions that 

 we did not anticipate a few years ago. 



Just as much so as the progressive physician finds it necessary to 

 adapt new methods in the treatment of diseases, and to comply with 

 the demands of hygienic surgery. 



THE IDEAL TREE. 



The first lesson in the pruning and management of an orchard is 

 to produce an ideal tree and an ideal orchard that will loom up before 

 the mental vision as clear as the noonday sun. 



This is just as necessary as it is for the architect to have his plan 

 well drawn before a lick is struck on the building. 



