380 



STATE BOARD OF AGRiICULTURE 



PRUNING BEARING APPLE TREES 



• 



After the bearing habit seems well established, or in other words, after the 

 tree has been producing moderate crops for two or three years, the pruning 

 may become more severe. In other words, the trees may have been very 

 lightly pruned for several years, and probably there will have accumulated a 

 considerable quantity of superfluous wood, and the trees will undoubtedly 

 have become too dense for optimum fruit production, especially in the in- 

 terior portions. In general, such pruning will consist in thinning out suf- 

 ficiently to permit light to penetrate to all parts. This thinning out should 



Figure 21. This Northern Spy tree is in need of thinning out about the outer parts and top. There 

 is little necessity for making cuts' larger than three-fourths of an inch in diameter, but many of these 

 small cuts should be made. The lower central part of this tree is too barren of fruiting wood. 



be largely confined to the removal of many small branches about the outer 

 parts of the tree rather than the cutting away of fewer large branches. In 

 addition to this major treatment, it may consist of heading any unruly or 

 wayward branches back within bounds, preventing the formation of weak 

 crotches, heading back branches tending to grow into others, and keeping the 

 fruiting machinery (spurs) well distributed and functioning throughout the 

 tree. 



Thinning Bearing Trees— The average more or less neglected bearing tree 

 is so thick about the outer parts that an even distribution of functioning fruit 



