PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING. 333 



be disturbed if she can prevent it. So I never prune in the fall, and 

 never would, although everybody else did, and I have seen better results 

 from spring pruning than from fall. I study nature largely in all those 

 things. Again, plum rot, it seems to me, comes to the most vigorous, 

 finest trees and finest fruit, though as a rule, of course, the constitution 

 and the vigor of the tree determines its ability to resist, and its power 

 to produce the best and most substantial fruit; but sometimes real thrift, 

 and all that, seems to invite rot. I can not say just why, but it seems 

 as though it did sometimes. Then, as to pruning, I have found that, the 

 foliage being dense and large, consumes greatly the strength of the tree, 

 in dry times especially, and you will get smaller fruit of the same kind 

 with heav3% thick foliage, tha^n you will with thin. Thin it off, cut it ofi". 

 I wish some down our way could have heard Mr. Kellogg's views. They 

 have this way of thinning their trees: They wait until they are fairly 

 set, fruit about as large as hickory nuts, see that they are going to have 

 a fair crop, and then, to save picking them and save trimming, at the 

 same time, they go through and cut them off. They say they brought it 

 up from the Watervliet district, and they tell us mossbacks that they 

 know how, and they trim and thin at that season of the year. Nature 

 does not like to be disturbed too vigorously just when she is vigorously 

 growing. 



Mr. Weed: Mr. Rork says that nature always guards against this 

 breaking down. Now, nature, or nature's forces, does break down trees 

 in the fall of the year, and of course the weight of the peaches breaks 

 the limbs off, and our heavy storms on the lake shore break the limbs 

 off very materially. Now, I have never seen any particular damage from 

 breaking limbs off from the trees. Such trees always seem to have more 

 vigor the next year than those adjoining that were unbroken. It cer- 

 tainly will do more damage to break a tree down in September, October, 

 or November than it would to trim it at that time or later, it seems 

 to me. Why is it that it should be a detriment? I think it does not 

 do such a material amount of damage as it does to wait too late in the 

 spring. In large orchards where we depend upon skilled labor to do trim- 

 ming, it is sometimes a very difficult matter to get men to trim thor- 

 oughly, enough of them to do it, consequently a good many orchards go 

 untrimmed; that is, some of them do — mine, for example. I could not 

 get men to trim the trees. So I wish to know if there is material damage 

 enough in winter pruning, or sufficient to make it an object to leave it 

 till spring; and it does seem to me that I had trees in my own orchard, 

 and I have noticed trees this summer in Mr. Taylor's orchard (he is a 

 good fruitgrower in our section) that had been broken. I noticed very 

 handsome fruit and very handsome foliage on the trees, although nature 

 did not prune them just exactly, perhaps, as we should have done. It 

 seems to me that nature, or nature's forces, occasionally does prune trees 

 for us quite heavily, and I have failed to see any great damage. 



Mr. Rork: I do not advocate leaving trimming to nature, though 

 nature provides someAvhat for that. But I do advocate not disturbing 

 nature when she has gone into winter quarters. If the breaking of a 

 tree by wind is no harm, let us have a few more tornadoes. My brother 

 might discover that there are some violent forces in nature that are not 

 so natural as they are unnatural, and nature does not break nor tear off 



