Summer Meeting. 61 



Remember, you are now pruning for growth and shape of tree, there 

 being no leaves to obstruct the view, the operator can see at a glance 

 \vhat to cut out. Prune out all cross limbs, and such limbs as interfere 

 one with another. Prune to prevent forks, shorten back limbs of irregu- 

 lar and rampant growth, and thin by cutting out the weaker limbs, but 

 never cut to exceed one-tenth of the top. Barrenness in young orchards 

 is sometimes the result of overpruning. 



Some years ago when picking a crop of Ben Davis from six-year 

 old trees, that yielded from one-half to three bushels per tree, a friend 

 came along and bade us good day, and then in an angry tone wanted 

 to know how it came we had such a fine crop of apples on our young- 

 trees while he had none. He said, I bought my trees of you, planted them 

 the same spring you planted yours, and on better land, have cultivated 

 them well, and pruned them nicely, and now you have plenty of fruit 

 and I have none. "And now," said he, "I want to know the reason!" 

 1 invited him into our orchard and showed him that this first crop was 

 all in the heart or center of the top. "Now," said I, "You say that 

 you pruned your trees nicely every year. Now tell me, did you not 

 cut out all of these little short spurs in the heart of your trees just to 

 make them look open and pretty, kind of umbrella style?" "Yes," said 

 he, as the truth flashed through his mind, "and, like a fool, cut away all 

 my fruit bearing spurs." Another friend, a fruit grower, and a firm 

 believer in the high open top tree, years ago, when visiting our orchard, 

 censured us severely for neglecting to prune our orchard, although we 

 had pruned according to rule given in this paper, yet he insisted that 

 we should cut out a much larger per cent, of the top. Later, when on 

 a second visit, we showed him through the same orchard ladened with 

 a massive crop of fruit, and asked him what he thought of it, he replied, 

 "Well, you are getting the fruit, there is no denying that fact, however, 

 I think it is at the expense of the constitution of the trees." But this 

 same orchard bore more fruit from year to year, made more money, and 

 lasted longer than any high topped, heavily pruned orchard in the 

 country, thus proving that our good friend was mistaken. One other 

 friend, for whom we planted five hundred two-year-old low-topped trees, 

 mostly Ben Davis, twenty-five years ago, let them grow low, heavy and 

 thick, pruning but very little, has sold more good crops, and for more 

 money than any of his neighbors who have pruned high and thin. I 

 asked this gentleman two years ago how many of the five hundred trees 

 were dead, and he replied, "Tw^o." Yet his neighbors' orchards all 

 around him, pruned high and thin, of same age and variety, are one to 

 two-thirds dead. To briefly sum up the advantages of this system of low 



